Under the Paris Agreement, OECD countries agreed to aim for a reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions sufficient to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre industrial levels. This commitment requires a massive effort to decarbonise energy and electricity generation, a radical restructuring of the electric power sector and the rapid deployment of large amounts of low-carbon generation technologies, in particular nuclear energy and renewable energies such as wind and solar PV.
This study assesses the costs of alternative low-carbon electricity systems capable of achieving strict carbon emission reductions consistent with the aims of the Paris Agreement. It analyses several deep decarbonisation scenarios to reach the same stringent carbon emission target but characterised by different shares of variable renewable technologies, hydroelectric power and nuclear energy.

Insights from Leaders in Nuclear Energy shares personal insights through a series of in-depth conversations between the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency Director-General and leading figures in the sector. Each conversation explores the current issues and offers new ways to address challenges and aim for excellence.
In August 2018, NEA Director-General William D. Magwood, IV sat down with Toyoshi Fuketa, Chairman of the Japanese Nuclear Regulation Authority (NRA), for a wide-ranging discussion regarding nuclear safety issues in Japan. The conversation touches on the Tokyo Electronic Power Company (TEPCO) Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Station accident, as well as ongoing challenges, Chairman Fuketa's perspective and insights and new directions for the NRA.

Under the Paris Agreement, OECD countries agreed to aim for a reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions sufficient to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre industrial levels. This commitment requires a massive effort to decarbonise energy and electricity generation, a radical restructuring of the electric power sector and the rapid deployment of large amounts of low-carbon generation technologies, in particular nuclear energy and renewable energies such as wind and solar PV.
This study assesses the costs of alternative low-carbon electricity systems capable of achieving strict carbon emission reductions consistent with the aims of the Paris Agreement. It analyses several deep decarbonisation scenarios to reach the same stringent carbon emission target but characterised by different shares of variable renewable technologies, hydroelectric power and nuclear energy.

Under the Paris Agreement, OECD countries agreed to aim for a reduction of their greenhouse gas emissions sufficient to hold the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2?C above pre industrial levels. This commitment requires a massive effort to decarbonise energy and electricity generation, a radical restructuring of the electric power sector and the rapid deployment of large amounts of low-carbon generation technologies, in particular nuclear energy and renewable energies such as wind and solar PV.
This study assesses the costs of alternative low-carbon electricity systems capable of achieving strict carbon emission reductions consistent with the aims of the Paris Agreement. It analyses several deep decarbonisation scenarios to reach the same stringent carbon emission target but characterised by different shares of variable renewable technologies, hydroelectric power and nuclear energy.

The NEA mentoring workshops are in line with the initiatives being undertaken by countries around the world to ensure that expertise is maintained in highly technical areas such as nuclear safety, radiological protection and other critical disciplines. Capacity-building efforts focusing on science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields need to be sustained and reinforced – particularly those aimed at young women, who are significantly under-represented in many areas. It is in this spirit that the NEA partnered with Japan’s National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST) in 2017 to organise its first International Mentoring Workshop in Science and Engineering, on 25-26 July 2017 in Chiba, Japan. The success of this first workshop has led to the organisation of two additional workshops in 2018, both of which are introduced in this brochure – one in Tokyo, Japan, and the other in Ávila, Spain. These workshops are a clear manifestation of the NEA’s commitment to maintaining, and further strengthening, its momentum in encouraging a future generation of female leaders in science and engineering fields.

One of the many important lessons learnt about nuclear safety over the years has been that
human aspects of nuclear safety are as important as any technical issue that may arise in
the course of nuclear operations. The international nuclear community can work together to
identify and address issues associated with components and systems and compare operational
experiences, but identifying how human behaviour affects safety and the best approaches to
examine this behaviour from country to country remains less common.
Practical experience has nevertheless shown that there are important differences in how people
work together and communicate across borders. People’s behaviours, attitudes and values
do not stop at the gate of a nuclear installation, and awareness of the systemic nature of
culture and its deeper aspects, such as the dynamics of how values and assumptions influence
behaviours, continues to evolve.
The NEA safety culture forum was created to gain a better understanding of how the national
context affects safety culture in a given country and how operators and regulators perceive
these effects in their day-to-day activities. The ultimate goal is to ensure safe nuclear operations.
The first NEA safety culture forum – a collaborative effort between the Nuclear Energy Agency
(NEA), the World Association of Nuclear Operators (WANO) and the Swedish Radiation Safety
Authority (SSM) – was held in Sweden in early 2018. This report outlines the process used to
conduct the forum, reveals findings from the discussions and invites the nuclear community to
further reflect and take action.

The NEA has a long tradition of expertise in the area of nuclear emergency policy, planning, preparedness and management. Through its activities in this field, it offers member countries unbiased assistance on nuclear preparedness matters, with a view to facilitating improvements in nuclear emergency preparedness strategies and response at the international level. A central approach to this has been the preparation and conduct of the International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX) series.
The Fifth International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX-5) was developed specifically in response to member countries' desire to test and demonstrate the value of changes put in place following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. Exercise objectives focused on notification, communication and interfaces related to catastrophic events involving ionising radiation and/or radioactive material. The exercise was held during 2015 and 2016, with 22 countries participating in the exercise.
This report summarises the major evaluation outcomes of the national and regional exercises, policy level outcomes, recommendations and follow-up activities emerging from INEX-5 and the discussions at the INEX-5 International Workshop. A set of key needs were identified in areas such as real-time communication and information sharing among countries and international partners, improving cross-border and international co-ordination of protective measures and considering the mental health impacts on populations when implementing protective measures.

The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) Handbook contains criticality safety benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments that were performed at various critical facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by criticality and safety analysts as well as nuclear data evaluators to validate calculational techniques and data. The handbook is produced by the ICSBEP working group, under the aegis of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). While co-ordination and administration of the ICSBEP is undertaken by the NEA, each participating country is responsible for the administration, technical direction, and priorities of the project within their respective countries. Access to some of the information and data included in this handbook may be restricted; full conditions for access are available on the NEA website.
The 2018 edition contains data evaluated criticality safety benchmark data in nine volumes that span over 70 000 pages. The handbook contains 567 evaluations with benchmark specifications for 4 916 critical, near-critical or subcritical configurations, 45 criticality alarm placement/shielding configurations with multiple dose points for each, and 215 configurations that have been categorised as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications.

The International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Experiments contains reactor physics benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments that were performed at various nuclear facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by reactor designers, safety analysts and nuclear data evaluators to validate calculational techniques and data. The handbook is a product of the International Reactor Physics Evaluation (IRPhE) project, conducted by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). While co-ordination and administration of the IRPhE project is undertaken by the NEA, each participating country is responsible for the administration, technical direction, and priorities of the project within their respective countries. Access to some of the information and data included in this handbook may be restricted; full conditions for access are available on the NEA website.
The 2018 edition contains data from 159 different experimental series that were performed at 54 different nuclear facilities. Some 156 of the 159 evaluations are published as approved benchmarks. The remaining five evaluations are published as draft documents only. All draft documents were reviewed by the International Reactor Physics Evaluation (IRPhE) Technical Review Group (TRG). Example calculations are presented; however, these calculations do not constitute validation or endorsement of the codes or cross section data. The IRPhE project is patterned after the International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) and is closely co-ordinated with the ICSBEP. Some benchmark data are applicable to both nuclear criticality safety and reactor physics technology. Some have already been evaluated and published by the ICSBEP, but have been extended to include other types of measurements besides the critical configuration.

The nuclear energy sector employs a considerable workforce around the world, and with nuclear power projected to grow in countries with increasing electricity demand, corresponding jobs in the nuclear power sector will also grow. Using the most available macroeconomic model to determine total employment – the "input/output" model – the Nuclear Energy Agency and International Atomic Energy Agency collaborated to measure direct, indirect and induced employment from the nuclear power sector in a national economy. The results indicate that direct employment during site preparation and construction of a single unit 1 000 megawatt-electric advanced light water reactor at any point in time for 10 years is approximately 1 200 professional and construction staff, or about 12 000 labour years. For 50 years of operation, approximately 600 administrative, operation and maintenance, and permanently contracted staff are employed annually, or about 30 000 labour years. For up to 10 years of decommissioning, about 500 people are employed annually, or around 5 000 labour years. Finally, over an approximate period of 40 years, close to 80 employees are managing nuclear waste, totalling around 3 000 labour years. A total of about 50 000 direct labour-years per gigawatt. Direct expenditures on these employees and equipment generate approximately the same number of indirect employment, or about 50 000 labour years; and direct and indirect expenditures generate about the same number of induced employment, or 100 000 labour years. Total employment in the nuclear power sector of a given national economy is therefore roughly 200 000 labour years over the life cycle of a gigawatt of nuclear generating capacity.

National programmes for radioactive waste management require very large amounts of data and information across multiple and disparate disciplines. These programmes tend to run over a period of many decades resulting in a serious risk of data and information loss, which in turn can threaten the production and maintenance of robust safety cases.

Metadata and associated tools and techniques play a crucial role in modern data and information management. The Radioactive Waste Repository Metadata Management (RepMet) initiative has prepared the first international study on the application of metadata to the field of radioactive waste management. This report introduces the concept of metadata, explains how metadata can help to facilitate data management, and gives advice on the issues arising when developing metadata within radioactive waste management programmes. It is aimed at readers looking to obtain a highlevel overview of metadata, and associated tools and techniques, and the strategic importance they can play in Radioactive Waste Management Organisations (RWMOs).

For the past several decades, the Nuclear Energy Agency Salt Club has been supporting
and overseeing the characterisation of rock salt as a potential host rock for deep
geological repositories. This extensive evaluation of deep geological settings is aimed
at determining ? through a multidisciplinary approach ? whether specific sites are
suitable for radioactive waste disposal. Studying the microbiology of granite, basalt,
tuff, and clay formations in both Europe and the United States has been an important
part of this investigation, and much has been learnt about the potential influence
of microorganisms on repository performance, as well as about deep subsurface
microbiology in general. Some uncertainty remains, however, around the effects of
microorganisms on salt-based repository performance. Using available information
on the microbial ecology of hypersaline environments, the bioenergetics of survival
under high ionic strength conditions and studies related to repository microbiology,
this report summarises the potential role of microorganisms in salt-based radioactive
waste repositories.

NEA News is the professional journal of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). It features articles on the latest nuclear energy issues concerning the economic and technical aspects of nuclear energy, nuclear safety and regulation, radioactive waste management and decommissioning, radiological protection, nuclear science and nuclear legislation. Each issue provides facts and opinions on nuclear energy, updates on NEA activities, a brief presentation of new NEA publications and other NEA news, along with links to NEA videos.

Topics covered in this issue of NEA News include: Fukushima reconstruction: Society, economy and community; The Transient Reactor Test (TREAT) Facility: A new era in fuel safety research; The Full Costs of Electricity Provision: A new NEA report; Insights into the global uranium market; and Progress towards an all hazards approach to emergency preparedness and response. This edition of NEA News also includes the NEA Director General William D. Magwood, IV's opening remarks at the NEA 60th Anniversary High Level Session in April 2018.

NEA News is the professional journal of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). It features articles on the latest nuclear energy issues concerning the economic and technical aspects of nuclear energy, nuclear safety and regulation, radioactive waste management, radiological protection, nuclear science and nuclear legislation. Each issue provides facts and opinions on nuclear energy, updates on NEA activities, a brief presentation of new NEA publications and other NEA news, along with links to NEA videos.

Topics covered in this issue of NEA News include: Perspectives on nuclear data activities at the Data Bank: Enhancing the validation function; An NEA State-of-the-Art Report on Accident-Tolerant Fuels; Country-Specific Safety Culture Forum in Sweden; 2018 NEA International Mentoring Workshops; NEA International Radiological Protection School (IRPS): Preparing tomorrow’s radiological protection leaders; and Nuclear Law Bulletin: 50 years of legal scholarship. This issue of NEA News also includes a guest editorial by Bernard Boullis, Advisor to France’s High Commissioner for Atomic Energy, on Science and Radioactive Waste Management.

Nuclear Energy Data is the Nuclear Energy Agency's annual compilation of statistics and country reports documenting nuclear power status in NEA member countries and in the OECD area. Information provided by governments includes statistics on total electricity produced by all sources and by nuclear power, fuel cycle capacities and requirements, and projections to 2035, where available. Country reports summarise energy policies, updates of the status in nuclear energy programmes and fuel cycle developments. In 2017, nuclear power continued to supply significant amounts of low-carbon baseload electricity, in a context of strong competition from low-cost fossil fuels and renewable energy sources. Governments committed to having nuclear power in the energy mix advanced plans for developing or increasing nuclear generating capacity, with the preparation of new build projects making progress in Finland, Hungary, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Further details on these and other developments are provided in the publication's numerous tables, graphs and country reports.

This publication contains "StatLinks". For each StatLink, the reader will find a URL which leads them to the corresponding spreadsheet.

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in
the field of nuclear law. It provides readers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear
law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical
articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on
relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international
organisations.

Feature articles and studies in this issue include: "Legal challenges to the operation of nuclear reactors
in Japan"; "Inside nuclear baseball: Reflections on the development of the safety conventions"; and "The
Peaceful Nuclear Energy Programme in the United Arab Emirates: Background and history".

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides readers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.
Feature articles and studies in this issue include: “The impact of the major nuclear power plant accidents on the international legal framework for nuclear power”; “Today is yesterday’s pupil: Reactor licence renewal in the United States”; and “Euratom competence in the areas of nuclear security and nuclear safety: An impossible parallel?”.

The present report is a follow up to this status report, documenting the results of a Phenomena Identification and Ranking Table (PIRT) exercise conducted by the NEA. This PIRT exercise identified SFP accident phenomena that are of high importance and yet are highly uncertain, thus highlighting their primary interest for further studies. The report recommends further support for existing experimental programmes and the establishment of a number of new programmes to focus, for example, on large-scale thermal-hydraulic experiments on the coolability of partly or completely uncovered spent-fuel assemblies and the investigation of spray cooling for uncovered spent-fuel assemblies in typical storage racks.

The transition from an operating nuclear facility to the decommissioning phase is critical in the life cycle of every facility. A number of organisational and technical modifications are needed in order for the facility to meet new objectives and requirements, and a certain number of activities must be initiated to support the transition and preparation for the dismantling of the facility. Thorough preparation and planning is key for the success of global decommissioning and dismantling projects, both to minimise delays and undue costs and to ensure a safe and efficient decommissioning process.
The aim of this report is to inform regulatory bodies, policy makers and planners about the relevant aspects and activities that should begin during the last years of operation and following the end of operation. Compiling lessons learnt from experiences and good practices in NEA member countries, the report supports the further optimisation of transition strategies, activities and measures that will ensure adequate preparation for decommissioning and dismantling.

The Fifth International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX-5) was developed in response to NEA member countries' desire to test and demonstrate the value of changes put in place following the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. INEX-5 was held during 2015 and 2016, and was followed by the Fifth International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX-5) Workshop in early 2017. Representatives from 22 member countries, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the European Commission attended the workshop, where participants identified elements emerging from INEX-5 that would help improve international and national arrangements for notification, communication and interfaces related to catastrophic events involving radiation or radiological materials.
The workshop was an interactive experience structured around invited presentations, moderated discussions and breakout groups that addressed the four broad topics of communication and information sharing with other countries and international partners; cross-border and international co-ordination of protective actions; mid- and long-term aspects of recovery; and connections with the work of other international organisations and networks. These proceedings provide a summary of the proposals and recommendations for future work in emergency management.

As part of a broader spectrum of collaborative activities underpinning nuclear materials research, the Nuclear Energy Agency is supporting worldwide efforts towards the development of advanced materials, including fuels for partitioning and transmutation purposes and accident-tolerant fuels (ATFs). This state-of-the-art report on ATFs results from the collective work of experts from 35 institutions in 14 NEA member countries, alongside invited technical experts from the People's Republic of China. It represents a shared and consensual position, based on expert judgment, concerning the scientific and technological knowledge related to ATFs. The report reviews available information on the most promising fuels and cladding concepts in terms of properties, experimental data and modelling results, as well as ongoing research and development activities. It also includes a description of illustrative accident scenarios that may be adopted to assess the potential performance enhancement of ATFs relative to the current standard fuel systems in accident conditions, a definition of the technology readiness levels applicable to ATFs, a survey of available modelling and simulation tools (fuel performance and severe accident analysis codes), and the experimental facilities available to support the development of ATF concepts. The information included in this report will be useful for national programmes and industrial stakeholders as an input to setting priorities, and helping them to choose the most appropriate technology based on their specific strategy, business case and deployment schedules.

The implementation of advanced nuclear systems requires that new technologies associated with the back end of the fuel cycle are developed. The separation of minor actinides from other fuel components is one of the advanced concepts being studied to help close the nuclear fuel cycle and to improve the long-term effects on the performance of geological repositories. Separating spent fuel elements and subsequently converting them through transmutation into short-lived nuclides should considerably reduce the long-term risks associated with nuclear power generation.

R&D programmes worldwide are attempting to address such challenges, and many processes for advanced reprocessing and partitioning minor actinides are being developed. This report provides a comprehensive overview of progress on separation chemistry processes, and in particular on the technologies associated with the separation and recovery of minor actinides for recycling so as to help move towards the implementation of advanced fuel cycles. The report examines both aqueous and pyro processes, as well as the status of current and proposed technologies described according to the hierarchy of separations targeting different fuel components. The process criteria that will affect technology down-selection are also reviewed, as are non-proliferation requirements. The maturity of different reprocessing techniques are assessed using a scale based on the technology readiness level, and perspectives for future
R&D are reviewed.

Electricity provision touches upon every facet of life in OECD and non-OECD countries alike, and choosing how this electricity is generated - whether from fossil fuels, nuclear energy or renewables - affects not only economic outcomes but individual and social well-being in the broader sense. Research on the overall costs of electricity is an ongoing effort, as only certain costs of electricity provision are perceived directly by producers and consumers. Other costs, such as the health impacts of air pollution, damage from climate change or the effects on the electricity system of small-scale variable production are not reflected in market prices and thus diminish well-being in unaccounted for ways.

Accounting for these social costs in order to establish the full costs of electricity provision is difficult, yet such costs are too important to be disregarded in the context of the energy transitions currently under way in OECD and NEA countries. This report draws on evidence from a large number of studies concerning the social costs of electricity and identifies proven instruments for internalising them so as to improve overall welfare.

The results outlined in the report should lead to new and more comprehensive research on the full costs of electricity, which in turn would allow policy makers and the public to make better informed decisions along the path towards fully sustainable electricity systems.

Electricity provision touches upon every facet of life in OECD and non-OECD countries alike, and choosing how this electricity is generated ? whether from fossil fuels, nuclear energy or renewables ? affects not only economic outcomes but individual and social well-being in the broader sense. Research on the overall costs of electricity is an ongoing effort, as only certain costs of electricity provision are perceived directly by producers and consumers. Other costs, such as the health impacts of air pollution, damage from climate change or the effects on the electricity system of small-scale variable production are not reflected in market prices and thus diminish well-being in unaccounted for ways.

Accounting for these social costs in order to establish the full costs of electricity provision is difficult, yet such costs are too important to be disregarded in the context of the energy transitions currently under way in OECD and NEA countries. This report draws on evidence from a large number of studies concerning the social costs of electricity and identifies proven instruments for internalising them so as to improve overall welfare.

The results outlined in the report should lead to new and more comprehensive research on the full costs of electricity, which in turn would allow policy makers and the public to make better informed decisions along the path towards fully sustainable electricity systems.

The field of emergency management is broad, complex and dynamic. In the post-Fukushima context, emergency
preparedness and response (EPR) in the nuclear sector is more than ever being seen as part of a broader
framework. The OECD has recommended that its members ?establish and promote a comprehensive, all-hazards
and transboundary approach to country risk governance to serve as the foundation for enhancing
national resilience and responsiveness?. In order to achieve such an all-hazards approach to emergency
management, a major step in the process will be to consider experiences from the emergency management of
hazards emanating from a variety of sectors.

The NEA Working Party on Nuclear Emergency Matters (WPNEM) joined forces with the OECD Working Group
on Chemical Accidents (WGCA), the OECD Public Governance and Territorial Development Directorate?s High-
Level Risk Forum (HLRF) and the European Commission?s Joint Research Centre (JRC) to collaborate on this
report, which demonstrates similarities between emergency planning and preparedness across sectors, and
identifies lessons learnt and good practices in diverse areas for the benefit of the international community.
A set of expert contributions, enriched with a broad range of national experiences, are presented in the
report to take into account expertise gathered from the emergency management of hazards other than those
emanating from the nuclear sector in an effort to support and foster an all-hazards approach to EPR.

Uranium is the raw material used to produce fuel for long-lived nuclear power facilities, necessary for the generation of significant amounts of baseload low-carbon electricity for decades to come. Although a valuable commodity, declining market prices for uranium in recent years, driven by uncertainties concerning the evolution in the use of nuclear power, have led to significant production cutbacks and the postponement of mine development plans in a number of countries and to some questions being raised about future uranium supply.

This 27th edition of the "Red Book", a recognised world reference on uranium jointly prepared by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), provides analyses and information from 41 producing and consuming countries in order to address these and other questions. The present edition provides the most recent review of world uranium market fundamentals and presents data on global uranium exploration, resources, production and reactor-related requirements. It offers updated information on established uranium production centres and mine development plans, as well as projections of nuclear generating capacity and reactor-related requirements through 2035, in order to address long-term uranium supply and demand issues.

The cost estimation process of decommissioning nuclear facilities has continued to evolve in recent years, with a general trend towards demonstrating greater levels of detail in the estimate and more explicit consideration of uncertainties, the latter of which may have an impact on decommissioning project costs. The 2012 report on the International Structure for Decommissioning Costing (ISDC) of Nuclear Installations, a joint recommendation by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Commission, proposes a standardised structure of cost items for decommissioning projects that can be used either directly for the production of cost estimates or for mapping of cost items for benchmarking purposes. The ISDC, however, provides only limited guidance on the treatment of uncertainty when preparing cost estimates. Addressing Uncertainties in Cost Estimates for Decommissioning Nuclear Facilities, prepared jointly by the NEA and IAEA, is intended to complement the ISDC, assisting cost estimators and reviewers in systematically addressing uncertainties in decommissioning cost estimates. Based on experiences gained in participating countries and projects, the report describes how uncertainty and risks can be analysed and incorporated in decommissioning cost estimates, while presenting the outcomes in a transparent manner.

Communication has a specific role to play in the development of deep geological repositories. Building trust with the stakeholders involved in this process, particularly within the local community, is key for effective communication between the authorities and the public. There are also clear benefits to having technical experts hone their communication skills and having communication experts integrated into the development process. This report has compiled lessons from both failures and successes in communicating technical information to non-technical audiences. It addresses two key questions in particular: what is the experience base concerning the effectiveness or non-effectiveness of different tools for communicating safety case results to a non-technical audience and how can communication based on this experience be improved and included into a safety case development effort from the beginning?

The Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident has had an impact on the development of nuclear power around the world. While the accident was followed by thorough technical assessments of the safety of all operating nuclear power plants, and a general increase in safety requirements has been observed worldwide, national policy responses have been more varied. These responses have ranged from countries phasing out or accelerating decisions to phase out nuclear energy to countries reducing their reliance on nuclear power or on the contrary continuing to pursue or expand their nuclear power programmes.

This study examines changes to policies, and plans and attempts to distinguish the impact of the Fukushima Daiichi accident from other factors that have affected policymaking in relation to nuclear energy, in particular electricity market economics, financing challenges and competition from other sources (gas, coal and renewables). It also examines changes over time to long-term, quantitative country projections, which reveal interesting trends on the possible role of nuclear energy in future energy systems.

Worldwide consensus exists within the international community that geological repositories can provide the necessary long-term safety and security to isolate long-lived radioactive waste from the human environment over long timescales. Such repositories are also feasible to construct using current technologies. However, proving the technical merits and safety of repositories, while satisfying societal and political requirements, has been a challenge in many countries.

Building upon the success of previous conferences held in Denver (1999), Stockholm (2003), Berne (2007) and Toronto (2012), the ICGR 2016 brought together high-level decision makers from regulatory and local government bodies, waste management organisations and public stakeholder communities to review current perspectives of geological repository development. This publication provides a synthesis of the 2016 conference on continued engagement and safe implementation of repositories, which was designed to promote information and experience sharing, particularly in the development of polices and regulatory frameworks. Repository safety, and the planning and implementation of repository programmes with societal involvement, as well as ongoing work within different international organisations, were also addressed at the conference.

The International Reactor Physics Experiment Evaluation (IRPhE) Project was initiated as a pilot in 1999 by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Nuclear Science Committee (NSC). The project was endorsed as an official activity of the NSC in June 2003. While the NEA co-ordinates and administers the IRPhE Project at the international level, each participating country is responsible for the administration, technical direction and priorities of the project within their respective countries. The information and data included in this handbook are available to NEA member countries, contributors and to others on a case-by-case basis.

This handbook contains reactor physics benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments performed at nuclear facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by reactor designers, safety analysts and nuclear data evaluators to validate calculation techniques and data. Example calculations are presented; these do not constitute a validation or endorsement of the codes or cross-section data.

The 2016 edition of the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments contains data from 151 experimental series that were performed at 50 reactor facilities. To be published as approved benchmarks, the experiments must be evaluated against agreed technical criteria and reviewed by the IRPhE Technical Review Group. A total of 146 of the 151 evaluations are published as approved benchmarks. The remaining five evaluations are published as draft documents only.

New to the handbook is the evaluation of the CERES Phase II validation of fission product poisoning through reactivity worth measurements, which includes 13 fission products. The front cover of this year?s handbook shows the MINERVE reactor used to obtain the results.

Despite progress over the past decades, women remain under-represented in executive positions in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. Female students tend to do very well in math and science early in their academic careers but often take other career paths. Many countries are working to close the gender gap and are developing policies to reverse this trend. However, considering the increasing demand worldwide for skilled workers in all areas of science and technology, including in the nuclear energy sector, more advocacy is needed to encourage the next generation and to capture their interest in these fields. It is in this spirit that the NEA partnered with Japan’s National Institutes for Quantum and Radiological Science and Technology (QST) to organise a mentoring workshop on July 25-26, 2017 in Chiba, Japan.

Because nuclear issues are embedded in broader societal issues such as the environment, energy, risk
management, health policy and sustainability, they can often generate considerable interest and concern.
Actors involved in the nuclear energy sector, including regulators, governments and licensees, share
the goal of reaching accepted, sustainable decisions and to ensure that the decision-making process
is transparent. Stakeholder involvement in decision making is today seen as an essential means for
improving decisions and for optimising their implementation.

In this context, the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) organised a Workshop on Stakeholder Involvement in
Nuclear Decision Making in January 2017, acknowledging that different countries and sectors may face
similar challenges and that sharing experiences and approaches could be useful. The workshop was an
opportunity to bring together experts with first-hand knowledge and experience in areas related to
nuclear law, regulatory practices, radiological protection, nuclear waste management, the deployment of
new nuclear facilities, extended operation of nuclear facilities, deployment of other energy technologies
and infrastructures, and social and traditional media.

This summary report attempts to capture the collective wisdom generated over three days of interaction.
It highlights some commonalities and differences in views and approaches, and identifies particular
lessons that can be applied to improve the strategy and practice of involving stakeholders in decision
making. Overall, the learning gained from this workshop can benefit governments and citizens alike.

Radioactive waste inventory data are an important element in the development of a national radioactive waste management programme since these data affect the design and selection of the ultimate disposal methods. Inventory data are generally presented as an amount of radioactive waste under various waste classes, according to the waste classification scheme developed and adopted by the country or national programme in question. Various waste classification schemes have evolved in most countries, and these schemes classify radioactive waste according to its origin, to criteria related to the protection of workers or to the physical, chemical and radiological properties of the waste and the planned disposal method(s).

The diversity in classification schemes across countries has restricted the possibility of comparing waste inventories and led to difficulties in interpreting waste management practices, both nationally and internationally. To help improve this situation, the Nuclear Energy Agency developed a methodology that ensures consistency of national radioactive waste and spent fuel inventory data when presenting them in a common scheme in direct connection with accepted management strategy and disposal routes. This report is a follow up to the 2016 report that introduced the methodology and presenting scheme for spent fuel, and it now extends this methodology and presenting scheme to all types of radioactive waste and corresponding management strategies.

Nuclear Energy Data is the Nuclear Energy Agency's annual compilation of statistics and country reports documenting nuclear power status in NEA member countries and in the OECD area. Information provided by governments includes statistics on total electricity produced by all sources and by nuclear power, fuel cycle capacities and requirements, and projections to 2035, where available. Country reports summarise energy policies, updates of the status in nuclear energy programmes and fuel cycle developments. In 2016, nuclear power continued to supply significant amounts of low-carbon baseload electricity, despite strong competition from low-cost fossil fuels and subsidised renewable energy sources. Three new units were connected to the grid in 2016, in Korea, Russia and the United States. In Japan, an additional three reactors returned to operation in 2016, bringing the total to five under the new regulatory regime. Three reactors were officially shut down in 2016 -- one in Japan, one in Russia and one in the United States. Governments committed to having nuclear power in the energy mix advanced plans for developing or increasing nuclear generating capacity, with the preparation of new build projects making progress in Finland, Hungary, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Further details on these and other developments are provided in the publication's numerous tables, graphs and country reports.

This publication contains "StatLinks". For each StatLink, the reader will find a URL which leads to the corresponding spreadsheet. These links work in the same way as an Internet link.

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in
the field of nuclear law. It provides readers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear
law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical
articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on
relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international
organisations.
Feature articles in this issue include: "Strengthening the international legal framework for nuclear security:
Better sooner rather than later"; "Brexit, Euratom and nuclear proliferation"; and "McMunn et al. V Babcock
and Wilcox Power Generation Group, Inc., et al.: The long road to dismissal".

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides readers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue include: "Reformed and reforming: Adapting the licensing process to meet new challenges"; "Reflections on the development of international nuclear law"; and "Facing the challenge of nuclear mass tort processing".

Radiological characterisation is a key enabling activity for the planning and
implementation of nuclear facility decommissioning. Effective characterisation allows
the extent, location and nature of contamination to be determined and provides
crucial information for facility dismantling, the management of material and waste
arisings, the protection of workers, the public and the environment, and associated
cost estimations.
This report will be useful for characterisation practitioners who carry out tactical
planning, preparation, optimisation and implementation of characterisation to support
the decommissioning of nuclear facilities and the management of associated materials
and waste. It compiles recent experience from NEA member countries in radiological
characterisation, including from international experts, international case studies,
an international conference, and international standards and guidance. Using this
comprehensive evidence base, the report identifies relevant good practice and provides
practical advice covering all stages of the characterisation process.

Large quantities of materials arising from the decommissioning of nuclear facilities are non-radioactive per se. An additional significant share of materials is of very low-level or low-level radioactivity and can, after having undergone treatment and a clearance process, be recycled and reused in a restricted or unrestricted way. Recycle and reuse options today provide valuable solutions to minimise radioactive waste from decommissioning and at the same time maximise the recovery of valuable materials. The NEA Co-operative Programme on Decommissioning (CPD) prepared this overview on the various approaches being undertaken by international and national organisations for the management of slightly contaminated material resulting from activities in the nuclear sector. The report draws on CPD member organisations’ experiences and practices related to recycling and reuse, which were gathered through an international survey. It provides information on improvements and changes in technologies, methodologies and regulations since the 1996 report on this subject, with the conclusions and recommendations taking into account 20 years of additional experience that will be useful for current and future practitioners. Case studies are provided to illustrate significant points of interest, for example in relation to scrap metals, concrete and soil.

SFCOMPO 2.0 is the NEA database of experimental assay measurements. Measurements are isotopic concentrations from destructive radiochemical analyses of spent nuclear fuel (SNF) samples, supplemented with design information for the fuel rod and fuel assembly from which each sample was taken, as well as with relevant information on operating conditions and design characteristics of the host reactors. SFCOMPO 2.0 contains data from 750 SNF samples coming from 44 reactors representing 8 different international reactor designs. SFCOMPO 2.0 was released online in June 2017.
SFCOMPO 2.0 has been developed by the NEA in close collaboration with Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL). The data in SFCOMPO 2.0 has undergone an independent and iterative review process by the Expert Group on Assay Data of Spent Nuclear Fuel (EGADSNF), under the NEA Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety (WPNCS). The data have been reviewed for consistency with the experimental reports but have not been formally evaluated. Assay data evaluations are a multidisciplinary effort involving reactor specialists, modelling and simulation experts, and radiochemistry experts. Any errors in measurements, omissions or inconsistencies in the original reported data may be reproduced in the database. Therefore, it is important that any user of the data for code validation consider and assess the potential data deficiencies. The evaluation of assay data will provide a more complete assessment and may result in the development of benchmark specifications and measurement data in cases of high quality experiments.
SFCOMPO 2.0 contains only openly accessible, published experimental assay data. An online Java application of SFCOMPO 2.0 is available at www.oecd-nea.org/sfcompo.

All national radioactive waste management authorities recognise today that a robust safety case is essential in developing disposal facilities for radioactive waste. To improve the robustness of the safety case for the development of a deep geological repository, a wide variety of activities have been carried out by national programmes and international organisations over the past years. The Nuclear Energy Agency, since first introducing the modern concept of the ?safety case?, has continued to monitor major developments in safety case activities at the international level. This Sourcebook summarises the activities being undertaken by the Nuclear Energy Agency, the European Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency concerning the safety case for the operational and post-closure phases of geological repositories for radioactive waste that ranges from low-level to high-level waste and for spent fuel. In doing so, it highlights important differences in focus among the three organisations.

While refurbishments for the long-term operation of nuclear power plants and for the lifetime extension of such plants have been widely pursued in recent years, the number of plants to be decommissioned is nonetheless expected to increase in future, particularly in the United States and Europe. It is thus important to understand the costs of decommissioning so as to develop coherent and cost-effective strategies, realistic cost estimates based on decommissioning plans from the outset of operations and mechanisms to ensure that future decommissioning expenses can be adequately covered.
This study presents the results of an NEA review of the costs of decommissioning nuclear power plants and of overall funding practices adopted across NEA member countries. The study is based on the results of this NEA questionnaire, on actual decommissioning costs or estimates, and on plans for the establishment and management of decommissioning funds. Case studies are included to provide insight into decommissioning practices in a number of countries.

Decommissioning of both commercial and R&D nuclear facilities is expected to increase significantly in the coming years, and the largest of such industrial decommissioning projects could command considerable budgets. It is important to understand the costs of decommissioning projects in order to develop realistic cost estimates as early as possible based on preliminary decommissioning plans, but also to develop funding mechanisms to ensure that future decommissioning expenses can be adequately covered. Sound financial provisions need to be accumulated early on to reduce the potential risk for residual, unfunded liabilities and the burden on future generations, while ensuring environmental protection.

Decommissioning planning can be subject to considerable uncertainties, particularly in relation to potential changes in financial markets, in energy policies or in the conditions and requirements for decommissioning individual nuclear installations, and such uncertainties need to be reflected in regularly updated cost estimates.

This booklet offers a useful overview of the relevant aspects of financing the decommissioning of nuclear facilities. It provides information on cost estimation for decommissioning, as well as details about funding mechanisms and the management of funds based on current practice in NEA member countries.

Countries around the world continue to implement safety improvements and corrective actions based on lessons learnt from the 11 March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. This report provides a high-level summary and update on these activities, and outlines further lessons learnt and challenges identified for future consideration. It focuses on actions taken by NEA committees and NEA member countries, and as such is complementary to reports produced by other international organisations.

It is in a spirit of openness and transparency that NEA member countries share this information to illustrate that appropriate actions are being taken to maintain and enhance the level of safety at their nuclear facilities. Nuclear power plants are safer today because of these actions. High priority follow-on items identified by NEA committees are provided to assist countries in continuously benchmarking and improving their nuclear safety practices.

Defence in depth (DiD) is a concept that has been used for many years alongside tools to optimise nuclear safety in reactor design, assessment and regulation. The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident provided unique insight into nuclear safety issues and raised questions about the tools used at nuclear power plants, including the effectiveness of the DiD concept, and whether DiD can be enhanced and its implementation improved.

This regulatory guidance booklet examines and provides advice on the implementation of DiD. A key observation is that the use of the DiD concept remains valid after the Fukushima Daiichi accident. Indeed, lessons learnt from the accident, and the accident?s impact on the use of DiD, have reinforced the fundamental importance of DiD in ensuring adequate safety.

This report is intended primarily for nuclear regulatory bodies, although information included herein is expected to be of interest to licensees, nuclear industry organisations and the general public.

The Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (CSBEP) was initiated in October of 1992 by the United States Department of Energy. The project quickly became an international effort as scientists from other interested countries became involved. The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) became an official activity of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in 1995.

This handbook contains criticality safety benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments performed at various critical facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by criticality safety engineers to validate calculation techniques used to establish minimum subcritical margins for operations with fissile material and to determine criticality alarm requirements and placement. Many of the specifications are also useful for nuclear data testing. Example calculations are presented; however, these do not constitute a validation of the codes or cross-section data.

The evaluated criticality safety benchmark data are given in nine volumes. These volumes span over 70 000 pages and contain 570 evaluations with benchmark specifications for 4 913 critical, near-critical or subcritical configurations, 45 criticality alarm placement/shielding configurations with multiple dose points for each, and 215 configurations that have been categorised as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications.

New to the handbook are 15 critical experiments with highly enriched uranium in an iron matrix performed to support the design of a repetitively pulsed reactor called the Sorgenta Rapida Reactor (SORA) at the Eurotom Research Centre in Ispra, Italy. A photograph of this experiment assembly is shown on the front cover.

The Nuclear Energy Agency carried out an independent peer review of Japan's siting process and criteria for the geological disposal of high-level radioactive waste in May 2016. The review concluded that Japan's site screening process is generally in accordance with international practices. As the goal of the siting process is to locate a site -- that is both appropriate and accepted by the community -- to host a geological disposal facility for high-level radioactive waste, the international review team emphasises in this report the importance of maintaining an open dialogue and interaction between the regulator, the implementer and the public. Dialogue should begin in the early phases and continue throughout the siting process. The international review team also underlines the importance of taking into account feasibility aspects when selecting a site for preliminary investigations, but suggests that it would be inappropriate to set detailed scientific criteria for nationwide screening at this stage. The team has provided extensive advisory remarks in the report as opportunities for improvement, including the recommendation to use clear and consistent terminology in defining the site screening criteria as it is a critical factor in a successful siting process.

The NEA Expert Group on Fukushima Waste Management and Decommissioning R&D (EGFWMD) was established in 2014 to offer advice to the authorities in Japan on the management of large quantities of on-site waste with complex properties and to share experiences with the international community and NEA member countries on ongoing work at the Fukushima Daiichi site. The group was formed with specialists from around the world who had gained experience in waste management, radiological contamination or decommissioning and waste management R&D after the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents. This report provides technical opinions and ideas from these experts on post-accident waste management and R&D at the Fukushima Daiichi site, as well as information on decommissioning challenges.

Radioactive waste inventory data are an important element in the development of a national radioactive waste management programme since these data affect the design and selection of the ultimate disposal methods. Inventory data are generally presented as an amount of radioactive waste under various waste classes, according to the waste classification scheme developed and adopted by the country or national programme in question. Various waste classification schemes have thus evolved in most countries, and these schemes classify radioactive waste according to its origin, to criteria related to the protection of workers or to the physical, chemical and radiological properties of the waste and the planned disposal method(s).

The diversity in classification schemes across countries has restricted the possibility of comparing waste inventories and led to difficulties in interpreting waste management practices, both nationally and internationally. To help improve this situation, the Nuclear Energy Agency proposed to develop a methodology that would ensure consistency of national radioactive waste inventory data when presenting them in a common scheme. This report provides such a methodology and presenting scheme for spent nuclear fuel and for waste arising from reprocessing. The extension of the methodology and presenting scheme to other types of radioactive waste and corresponding management strategies is envisaged in a second phase.

Nuclear Energy Data is the Nuclear Energy Agency's annual compilation of statistics and country
reports documenting nuclear power status in NEA member countries and in the OECD area. Information
provided by governments includes statistics on installed generating capacity, total electricity produced
by all sources and by nuclear power, nuclear energy policies and fuel cycle developments, as well as
projections of nuclear generating capacity and electricity production to 2035, where available. Total
electricity generation at nuclear power plants and the share of electricity production from nuclear power
plants increased slightly in 2015, by 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively. Two new units were connected to the
grid in 2015, in Russia and Korea; two reactors returned to operation in Japan under the new regulatory
regime; and seven reactors were officially shut down - five in Japan, one in Germany and one in the
United Kingdom. Governments committed to having nuclear power in the energy mix advanced plans
for developing or increasing nuclear generating capacity, with the preparation of new build projects
progressing in Finland, Hungary, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Further details on these and other
developments are provided in the publication's numerous tables, graphs and country reports.

This publication contains "StatLinks". For each StatLink, the reader will find a URL which leads to the
corresponding spreadsheet. These links work in the same way as an Internet link.
Donnees sur l'energie nucleaire 2016

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides readers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue include "Nuclear Third Party Liability in Germany" and "Towards Nuclear Disarmament: State of Affairs in the International Legal Framework".

Since the discovery of radiation at the end of the 19th century, the health effects of exposure to radiation have been studied more than almost any other factor with potential effects on human health. The NEA has long been involved in discussions on the effects of radiation exposure, releasing two reports in 1994 and 2007 on radiological protection science.

This report is the third in this state-of-the-art series, examining recent advances in the understanding of radiation risks and effects, particularly at low doses. It focuses on radiobiology and epidemiology, and also addresses the social science aspects of stakeholder involvement in radiological protection decision making. The report summarises the status of, and issues arising from, the application of the International System of Radiological Protection to different types of prevailing circumstances.

Recent interest in small modular reactors (SMRs) is being driven by a desire to reduce the total capital costs associated with nuclear power plants and to provide power to small grid systems. According to estimates available today, if all the competitive advantages of SMRs were realised, including serial production, optimised supply chains and smaller financing costs, SMRs could be expected to have lower absolute and specific (per-kWe) construction costs than large reactors. Although the economic parameters of SMRs are not yet fully determined, a potential market exists for this technology, particularly in energy mixes with large shares of renewables.

This report assesses the size of the market for SMRs that are currently being developed and that have the potential to broaden the ways of deploying nuclear power in different parts of the world. The study focuses on light water SMRs that are expected to be constructed in the coming decades and that strongly rely on serial, factory-based production of reactor modules. In a high-case scenario, up to 21 GWe of SMRs could be added globally by 2035, representing approximately 3% of total installed nuclear capacity.

Nuclear sites around the world are being decommissioned and remedial actions are being undertaken to enable sites, or parts of sites, to be reused. Although such activities are relatively straightforward for most sites, experience has suggested that preventative action is needed to minimise the impact of remediation activities on the environment and the potential burden to future generations. Removing all contamination in order to make a site suitable for any use generates waste and has associated environmental, social and economic drawbacks and benefits. Site remediation should thus be sustainable and result in an overall net benefit.

This report draws on recent experience of NEA member countries in nuclear site remediation during decommissioning in order to identify strategic considerations for the sustainable remediation of subsurface contamination – predominantly contaminated soil and groundwater – to describe good practice, and to make recommendations for further research and development. It provides insights for the decision makers, regulators, implementers and stakeholders involved in nuclear site decommissioning so as to ensure the sustainable remediation of nuclear sites, now and in the future.

The fundamental objective of all nuclear safety regulatory bodies is to ensure that activities related to the peaceful use of nuclear energy are carried out in a safe manner within their respective countries. In order to effectively achieve this objective, the nuclear regulatory body requires specific characteristics, one of which is a healthy safety culture.

This regulatory guidance report describes five principles that support the safety culture of an effective nuclear regulatory body. These principles concern leadership for safety, individual responsibility and accountability, co-operation and open communication, a holistic approach, and continuous improvement, learning and self-assessment.

The report also addresses some of the challenges to a regulatory body's safety culture that must be recognised, understood and overcome. It provides a unique resource to countries with existing, mature regulators and can be used for benchmarking as well as for training and developing staff. It will also be useful for new entrant countries in the process of developing and maintaining an effective nuclear safety regulator.

Uranium is the raw material used to produce fuel for long-lived nuclear power facilities, necessary for the generation of significant amounts of baseload low-carbon electricity for decades to come. Although a valuable commodity, declining market prices for uranium in recent years, driven by uncertainties concerning evolutions in the use of nuclear power, have led to the postponement of mine development plans in a number of countries and to some questions being raised about future uranium supply. This 26th edition of the "Red Book", a recognised world reference on uranium jointly prepared by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), provides analyses and information from 49 producing and consuming countries in order to address these and other questions. The present edition provides the most recent review of world uranium market fundamentals and presents data on global uranium exploration, resources, production and reactor-related requirements. It offers updated information on established uranium production centres and mine development plans, as well as projections of nuclear generating capacity and reactor-related requirements through 2035, in order to address long-term uranium supply and demand issues.

In the field of long-term radioactive waste management, projects to construct repositories normally last from decades to centuries. Such projects will inevitably have an effect on the host community from the planning stage to the end of construction and beyond. The key to a long-lasting and positive relationship between a site and its host community is ensuring that solutions are reached together throughout the entire process. The sustainability of radioactive waste management solutions can potentially be achieved through design and implementation of a facility that provides added cultural and amenity value, as well as economic opportunities, to the local community.

This second edition of Fostering a Durable Relationship Between a Waste Management Facility and its Host Community: Adding Value Through Design and Process highlights new innovations in siting processes and in facility design – functional, cultural and physical – from different countries, which could be of added value to host communities and their sites in the short to long term. These new features are examined from the perspective of sustainability, with a focus on increasing the likelihood that people will both understand the facility and its functions, and remember what is located at the site.

This 2015 update by the NEA Forum on Stakeholder Confidence will be beneficial in designing paths forward for local or regional communities, as well as for national radioactive waste management programmes.

Heavy liquid metals such as lead or lead-bismuth have been proposed and investigated as coolants for fast reactors since the 1950s. More recently, there has been renewed interest worldwide in the use of these materials to support the development of systems for the transmutation of radioactive waste. Heavy liquid metals are also under evaluation as a reactor core coolant and accelerator-driven system neutron spallation source. Several national and international R&D programmes are ongoing for the development of liquid lead-alloy technology and the design of liquid-lead alloy-cooled reactor systems.

In 2007, a first edition of the handbook was published to provide deeper insight into the properties and experimental results in relation to lead and lead-bismuth eutectic technology and establish a common database. This handbook remains a reference and is a valuable tool for designers and researchers with an interest in heavy liquid metals.

The 2015 edition includes updated data resulting from various national and international R&D programmes and contains new experimental data to help understand some important phenomena such as liquid metal embrittlement and turbulent heat transfer in a fuel bundle. The handbook provides an overview of liquid lead and lead-bismuth eutectic properties, materials compatibility and testing issues, key aspects of thermal-hydraulics and existing facilities, as well as perspectives for future R&D.

The Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (CSBEP) was initiated in October of 1992 by the United States Department of Energy (DOE). The project quickly became an international effort as scientists from other interested countries became involved. The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) became an official activity of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in 1995.

This handbook contains criticality safety benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments performed at various critical facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by criticality safety engineers to validate calculation techniques used to establish minimum subcritical margins for operations with fissile material and to determine criticality alarm requirements and placement. Many of the specifications are also useful for nuclear data testing. Example calculations are presented; however, these calculations do not constitute a validation of the codes or cross-section data.

The evaluated criticality safety benchmark data are given in nine volumes. These volumes span approximately 69 000 pages and contain 567 evaluations with benchmark specifications for 4 874 critical, near-critical or subcritical configurations, 31 criticality alarm placement/shielding configurations with multiple dose points for each, and 207 configurations that have been categorised as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications.

New to the handbook are benchmark specifications for neutron activation foil and thermoluminescent dosimeter measurements performed at the SILENE critical assembly in Valduc, France as part of a joint venture in 2010 between the US DOE and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). A photograph of this experiment is shown on the front cover.

Since the beginning of the nuclear era, significant scientific attention has been given to thorium's potential as a nuclear fuel. Although the thorium fuel cycle has never been fully developed, the opportunities and challenges that might arise from the use of thorium in the nuclear fuel cycle are still being studied in many countries and in the context of diverse international programmes around the world. This report provides a scientific assessment of thorium's potential role in nuclear energy both in the short to longer term, addressing diverse options, potential drivers and current impediments to be considered if thorium fuel cycles are to be pursued.

Nuclear Energy Data is the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency's annual compilation of statistics and country reports documenting nuclear power status in the OECD area. Information provided by member country governments includes statistics on installed generating capacity, total electricity produced by all sources and by nuclear power, nuclear energy policies and fuel cycle developments, as well as projected generating capacity and electricity production to 2035, where available. Total electricity generation at nuclear power plants and the share of electricity production from nuclear power plants increased slightly in 2014, by 1.4% and 0.3% respectively, despite Japan's nuclear fleet remaining offline throughout the year. No new reactor was connected to the grid in OECD countries and one, in the United States, was permanently shut down. Governments committed to having nuclear power in the energy mix advanced plans for developing or increasing nuclear generating capacity, with the preparation of new build projects making progress in Finland, Hungary, Turkey and the United Kingdom. Further details on these and other developments are provided in the publication's numerous tables, graphs and country reports.

This publication contains "StatLinks". For each StatLink, the reader will find a URL which leads to the corresponding spreadsheet. These links work in the same way as an Internet link.

The global response to address climate change is a key policy challenge of the 21st century. Many governments around the world have agreed that action should be taken to achieve large cuts in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions over the coming decades, to adapt to the impacts of climate change and to ensure the necessary financial and technical support for developing countries to take action.

There is a growing scientific consensus that global annual GHG emissions will need to be reduced by at least 50% from today’s levels by 2050 if the world is to limit the average temperature increase to 2°C by the end of the century and avoid the worst consequences of global warming. This brochure describes the role that nuclear energy can play in helping to combat climate change, and sets that role in the context of all low-carbon electricity sources, with specific references to renewables.

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides readers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.
Feature articles in this issue include "Entry into force of the Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage: Opening the umbrella"; "Towards a new international framework for nuclear safety: Developments from Fukushima to Vienna"; "Nuclear arbitration: Interpreting non-proliferation agreements".

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides readers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue include ?Treaty implementation applied to conventions on nuclear safety? and ?Crisis, criticism, change: Regulatory reform in the wake of nuclear accidents?.

Nuclear new build has been progressing steadily since the year 2000, with the construction of 94 new reactors initiated and 56 completed reactors connected to the grid. Among these new reactors are some of the first generation III/III+ reactors of their kind. Drawing on a combination of conceptual analysis, expert opinion and seven in-depth case studies, this report provides policymakers and stakeholders with an overview of the principal challenges facing nuclear new build today, as well as ways to address and overcome them.

It focuses on the most important challenges of building a new nuclear power plant, namely assembling the conditions necessary to successfully finance and manage highly complex construction processes and their supply chains. Different projects have chosen different paths, but they nonetheless share a number of features. Financing capital-intensive nuclear new build projects requires, for example, the long-term stabilisation of electricity prices whether through tariffs, power purchase agreements or contracts for difference. In construction, the global convergence of engineering codes and quality standards would also promote both competition and public confidence. In addition, change management, early supply chain planning and "soft issues" such as leadership, team building and trust have emerged over and again as key factors in the new build construction process. This report looks at ongoing trends in these areas and possible ways forward.

This joint report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) is the eighth in a series of studies on electricity generating costs. As policy makers work to ensure that the power supply is reliable, secure and affordable, while making it increasingly clean and sustainable in the context of the debate on climate change, it is becoming more crucial that they understand what determines the relative cost of electricity generation using fossil fuel, nuclear or renewable sources of energy. A wide range of fuels and technologies are presented in the report, including natural gas, coal, nuclear, hydro, solar, onshore and offshore wind, biomass and biogas, geothermal, and combined heat and power, drawing on a database from surveys of investment and operating costs that include a larger number of countries than previous editions.

The analysis of more than 180 plants, based on data covering 22 countries, reveals several key trends, pointing, for example, to a significant decline in recent years in the cost of renewable generation. The report also reveals that nuclear energy costs remain in line with the cost of other baseload technologies, particularly in markets that value decarbonisation. Overall, cost drivers of the different generating technologies remain both market-specific and technology-specific.

Readers will find a wealth of details and analysis, supported by over 200 figures and tables, underlining this report's value as a tool for decision makers and researchers concerned with energy policies, climate change and the evolution of power sectors around the world.

The Preservation of Records, Knowledge and Memory (RK&M) across Generations initiative was launched by the Nuclear Energy Agency in 2011 to foster international reflection and progress towards this goal and to meet increasing demands by waste management specialists and other interested parties for viable and shared strategies. The RK&M initiative is now in its second phase, which is to last until 2017. Phase I culminated on 15-17 September 2014 with the organisation of an international conference and debate on “Constructing Memory" held in Verdun, France.

The conference was attended by approximately 200 participants from 17 countries and 3 international organisations. Participants included specialists from the radioactive waste management area and beyond, academics in the fields of archaeology, communications, cultural heritage, geography and history, as well as artists, archivists, representatives from local heritage societies and from communities that could host a radioactive waste repository.

Spent nuclear fuel contains minor actinides (MAs) such as neptunium, americium and curium, which require careful management. This becomes even more important when mixed oxide (MOX) fuel is being used on a large scale since more MAs will accumulate in the spent fuel. One way to manage these MAs is to transmute them in nuclear reactors, including in light water reactors, fast reactors or accelerator-driven subcritical systems. The transmutation of MAs, however, is not straightforward, as the loading of MAs generally affects physics parameters, such as coolant void, Doppler and burn-up reactivity.

This report focuses on nuclear data requirements for minor actinide management, the review of existing integral data and the determination of required experimental work, the identification of bottlenecks and possible solutions, and the recommendation of an action programme for international co-operation.

Radioactive waste management is embedded in broader societal issues such as the environment, risk management, energy, health policy and sustainability. In all these fields, there is an increasing demand for public involvement and engagement. This 2015 update of Stakeholder Involvement Techniques: Short Guide and Annotated Bibliography, assists practitioners and non-specialists by outlining the steps and issues associated with stakeholder involvement in decision making and by facilitating access to useful online resources (handbooks, toolboxes and case studies). The updated guide has been considerably enriched with experiences since 2004 and includes extensive references to the literature. It is published alongside the release of an online annotated bibliography that will be updated regularly.

Decommissioning of both commercially used and R&D nuclear facilities is expected to increase significantly in the coming years, and the largest of such industrial decommissioning projects could command considerable budgets. Several approaches are currently being used for decommissioning cost estimations, with an international culture developing in the field. The present cost estimation practice guide was prepared in order to offer international actors specific guidance in preparing quality cost and schedule estimates to support detailed budgeting for decommissioning implementation, for the preparation of decommissioning plans and for the securing of funds. This guide is based on current practices and standards in a number of NEA member countries and aims to help consolidate the practice and process of decommissioning cost estimation so as to make it more widely understood. It offers a useful reference for the practitioner and for training programmes.

Peer reviews are a standard co-operative OECD working tool that offer member countries a framework to compare experiences and examine best practices in a host of areas. The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has developed a proven methodology for conducting peer reviews in radioactive waste management and nuclear R&D. Using this methodology, the NEA Radioactive Waste Management Committee’s Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling (WPDD) developed the present guide as a framework for decommissioning cost reviewers and reviewees to prepare for and conduct international peer reviews of decommissioning cost estimate studies for nuclear facilities. It includes checklists that will help national programmes or relevant organisations to assess and improve decommissioning cost estimate practices in the future. This guide will act as the NEA reference for conducting such international peer reviews.

The Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (CSBEP) was initiated in October 1992 by the United States Department of Energy. The project quickly became an international effort as scientists from other interested countries became involved. The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP) became an official activity of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in 1995.

This handbook contains criticality safety benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments performed at various critical facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by criticality safety engineers to validate calculation techniques used to establish minimum subcritical margins for operations with fissile material and to determine criticality alarm requirements and placement. Many of the specifications are also useful for nuclear data testing. Example calculations are presented; however, these calculations do not constitute a validation of the codes or cross-section data.

The evaluated criticality safety benchmark data are given in nine volumes. These volumes span approximately 67?000 pages and contain 561 evaluations with benchmark specifications for 4?839 critical, near-critical or subcritical configurations, 24 criticality alarm placement/shielding configurations with multiple dose points for each and 207?configurations that have been categorised as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications.

New to the handbook are benchmark specifications for subcritical measurements of a nickel-reflected, plutonium-metal sphere performed at the National Criticality Experiments Research Center (NCERC) by experimenters at the Los Alamos National Laboratory in 2012. A photograph of this experiment is shown on the front cover.

Uranium mining and milling has evolved significantly over the years. By comparing currently leading approaches with outdated practices, this report demonstrates how uranium mining can be conducted in a way that protects workers, the public and the environment. Innovative, modern mining practices combined with strictly enforced regulatory standards are geared towards avoiding past mistakes committed primarily during the early history of the industry when maximising uranium production was the principal operating consideration. Today?s leading practices in uranium mining aim at producing uranium in an efficient and safe manner that limits environmental impacts to acceptable standards. As indicated in this report, the collection of baseline environmental data, environmental monitoring and public consultation throughout the life cycle of the mine enables verification that the facility is operating as planned, provides early warning of any potentially adverse impacts on the environment and keeps stakeholders informed of developments. Leading practice also supports planning for mine closure before mine production is licensed to ensure that the mining lease area is returned to an environmentally acceptable condition. The report highlights the importance of mine workers being properly trained and well equipped, as well as that of ensuring that their work environment is well ventilated so as to curtail exposure to radiation and hazardous materials and thereby minimise health impacts.

Nuclear Energy Data is the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency's annual compilation of statistics and country reports documenting the status of nuclear power in the OECD area. Information provided by member country governments includes statistics on installed generating capacity, total electricity produced by all sources and by nuclear power, nuclear energy policies and fuel cycle developments, as well as projected generating capacity and electricity production to 2035, where available. Total electricity generation at nuclear power plants and the share of electricity production from nuclear power plants remained steady in 2013 despite the progressive shutdown of all reactors in Japan leading up to September and the permanent closure of six reactors in the OECD area. Governments committed to maintaining nuclear power in the energy mix advanced plans for increasing nuclear generating capacity, and progress was made in the development of deep geological repositories for spent nuclear fuel, with Finland expected to have the first such facility in operation in the early 2020s. Further details on these and other developments are provided in the publication's numerous tables, graphs and country reports.

This publication contains "StatLinks". For each StatLink, the reader will find a URL which leads to the corresponding spreadsheet. These links work in the same way as an Internet link.

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides subscribers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue include: "Uranium mining and production: A legal perspective on regulating an important resource"; "Turkish nuclear legislation: Developments for a nuclear newcomer"; and "Nuclear law and environmental law in the licensing of nuclear installations".

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published free online twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue include: "Progress towards a global nuclear liability regime"; "The Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage and participation by developing countries: A South African perspective"; "Fusion energy and nuclear liability considerations"; and "Nuclear energy and Indian society: Public engagement, risk assessment and legal frameworks".

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides subscribers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.
Feature articles in this issue include "Facilitating the entry into force and implementation of the Amendment to the Convention on the Physical Protection of Nuclear Material: Observations, challenges and benefits"; "The legal status of nuclear power in Germany"; "Challenges facing the insurance industry since the modernisation of the international nuclear third party liability regime"; "Draft Federal Act of the Russian Federation, 'The Civil Liability for Nuclear Damage and its Financial Security'".

Decommissioning of nuclear facilities and related remedial actions are currently being undertaken around the world to enable sites or parts of sites to be reused for other purposes. Remediation has generally been considered as the last step in a sequence of decommissioning steps, but the values of prevention, long-term planning and parallel remediation are increasingly being recognised as important steps in the process. This report, prepared by the Task Group on Nuclear Site Restoration of the NEA Co-operative Programme on Decommissioning, highlights lessons learnt from remediation experiences of NEA member countries that may be particularly helpful to practitioners of nuclear site remediation, regulators and site operators. It provides observations and recommendations to consider in the development of strategies and plans for efficient nuclear site remediation that ensures protection of workers and the environment.

Producing uranium in a safe and environmentally responsible manner is not only important to the producers and consumers of the product, but also to society at large. Given expectations of growth in nuclear generating capacity and associated uranium demand in the coming decades &ndash; particularly in the developing world &ndash; enhancing awareness of leading practice in uranium mining is important. This extended summary of the report <em>Managing Environmental and Health Impacts of Uranium Mining</em> provides a brief outline of the driving forces behind the significant evolution of uranium mining practices from the time that uranium was first mined for military purposes until today.

Nuclear decommissioning activities can greatly benefit from research and development (R&D) projects. This report examines applicable emergent technologies, current research efforts and innovation needs to build a base of knowledge regarding the status of decommissioning technology and R&D. This base knowledge can be used to obtain consensus on future R&D that is worth funding. It can also assist in deciding how to collaborate and optimise the limited pool of financial resources available among NEA member countries for nuclear decommissioning R&D.

Development of innovative fuels such as homogeneous and heterogeneous fuels, ADS fuels, and oxide, metal, nitride and carbide fuels is an important stage in the implementation process of advanced nuclear systems. Several national and international R&D programmes are investigating minor actinide-bearing fuels due to their ability to help reduce the radiotoxicity of spent fuel and therefore decrease the burden on geological repositories. Minor actinides can be converted into a suitable fuel form for irradiation in reactor systems where they are transmuted into fission products with a significantly shorter half-life.

This report compares recent studies of fuels containing minor actinides for use in advanced nuclear systems. The studies review different fuels for several types of advanced reactors by examining various technical issues associated with fabrication, characterisation, irradiation performance, design and safety criteria, as well as technical maturity.

Both national and international organisations agree that the fundamental objective of all nuclear safety regulatory bodies -- the regulator's prime purpose -- is to ensure that nuclear licensees operate their facilities at all times in a safe manner. Much has been written about ways to improve regulatory processes or to improve the effectiveness of a regulatory body, including in previous OECD/NEA regulatory guidance booklets. But until now, none have focused on the characteristics of an effective nuclear safety regulator.

Effective organisations are those that have good leadership and are able to transform strategic direction into operational programmes. Effectiveness is about how well the organisation is achieving its fundamental purpose -- in the case of a nuclear safety regulator, ensuring that licensees operate their facilities and discharge their obligations in a safe manner.

This regulatory guidance booklet describes the characteristics of an effective nuclear safety regulator in terms of roles and responsibilities, principles and attributes. Each of the characteristics discussed in this report is a necessary feature of an effective nuclear safety regulator but no one characteristic is sufficient on its own. It is the combination of these characteristics that leads to the effectiveness of a nuclear regulatory body. The report provides a unique resource to countries with existing, mature regulators and can be used for benchmarking as well as training and developing staff. It will also be useful for new entrant countries in the process of developing and maintaining an effective nuclear safety regulator.

Uranium is the raw material used to fuel over 400 operational nuclear reactors around the world that produce large amounts of electricity and benefit from life cycle carbon emissions as low as renewable energy sources. Although a valuable commodity, declining market prices for uranium since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in 2011, driven by uncertainties concerning the future of nuclear power, have led to the postponement of mine development plans in a number of countries and raised questions about continued uranium supply. This 25th edition of the "Red Book", a recognised world reference on uranium jointly prepared by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency, provides analyses and information from 45 producing and consuming countries in order to address these and other questions. It includes data on global uranium exploration, resources, production and reactor-related requirements. It offers updated information on established uranium production centres and mine development plans, as well as projections of nuclear generating capacity and reactor-related requirements through 2035, incorporating policy changes following the Fukushima accident, in order to address long-term uranium supply and demand issues.

Uranium is the raw material used to fuel over 400 operational nuclear reactors around the world that produce large amounts of electricity and benefit from life cycle carbon emissions as low as renewable energy sources. Although a valuable commodity, declining market prices for uranium since the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident in 2011, driven by uncertainties concerning the future of nuclear power, have led to the postponement of mine development plans in a number of countries and raised questions about continued uranium supply. This 25th edition of the "Red Book", a recognised world reference on uranium jointly prepared by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency, provides analyses and information from 45 producing and consuming countries in order to address these and other questions. It includes data on global uranium exploration, resources, production and reactor-related requirements. It offers updated information on established uranium production centres and mine development plans, as well as projections of nuclear generating capacity and reactor-related requirements through 2035, incorporating policy changes following the Fukushima accident, in order to address long-term uranium supply and demand issues.

As all safety systems in the majority of existing nuclear power plants use the preferred power supply, any voltage surges in these systems could lead to common-cause failures. In the event of an unusual electrical system transient, it is essential that safety-related equipment be isolated or protected from the fault in order to ensure its ability to safely shut down the reactor and remove decay heat.
Based on the analysis of the voltage surges observed at Forsmark-1 in 2006 and Olkiluoto-1 in 2008, this technical opinion paper summarises the current state of knowledge of in-plant and external grid-related challenges to nuclear power plant safety-related electrical equipment. It will be of particular interest to nuclear safety regulators, nuclear power plant operators and grid system regulators and operators.

This volume is the 13th in the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) "Chemical Thermodynamics" series. It is the first part of a critical review of the thermodynamic properties of iron, its solid compounds and aqueous complexes, initiated as part of the NEA Thermochemical Database Project Phase III (TDB III). The database system developed at the OECD/NEA Data Bank ensures consistency not only within the recommended data sets of iron, but also among all the data sets published in the series. This volume will be of particular interest to scientists carrying out performance assessments of deep geological disposal sites for radioactive waste.

As manifested by an increasingly globalised media, a nuclear accident anywhere quickly becomes a potential concern for people everywhere. It is therefore of prime importance that nuclear regulators’ communication strategies take into consideration the expectations and concerns of the public and provide sound information not only for the people of the affected country, but also for citizens worldwide. Public trust is a key element in being able to do so effectively and of particular importance when there are consequences for people or the environment. International co-operation can play a fundamental role in helping to improve crisis communication on national and global scales in the event of a nuclear accident or radiological emergency. These proceedings contain the papers, recommendations and conclusions of the workshop, which was attended by over 180 experts from 27 countries and 6 international organisations.

The International Reactor Physics Experiments Evaluation Project (IRPhEP) was launched in 1999 by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Nuclear Science Committee (NSC). While co-ordination and administration of the IRPhEP is managed at the international level by the NEA, each participating country is responsible for the administration, technical direction and priorities of the project within their respective countries. The information and data included in this handbook are available to NEA member countries, to all contributing countries and to others on a case-by-case basis.
This handbook contains reactor physics benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments performed at various nuclear facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by reactor designers, safety analysts and nuclear data evaluators to validate calculation techniques and data. Example calculations are presented; they do not, however, constitute validation or endorsement of the codes or cross-section data.
The 2013 edition of the International Handbook of Evaluated Reactor Physics Benchmark Experiments contains data from 130 experimental series performed at 47 reactor facilities. One hundred twenty-six of the 130 evaluations are published as approved benchmarks; the remaining four are published as draft documents only.
New to the handbook are benchmark specifications for selected measurements on the very-high-temperature reactor critical assembly (VHTRC) which were performed at the Japan Atomic Energy Agency (JAEA) Tokai Research Establishment in Japan between 1985 and 1996.

This publication provides an introduction to minor actinide nuclear properties and discusses some of the arguments in favour of minor actinide recycling, as well as the potential role of thermal reactors in this regard. Various technical issues and challenges are examined from the fuel cycle, operations, fuel designs, core management and safety/dynamics responses to safety and economics. The focus of this report is on the general conclusions of recent research that could be applied to thermal reactors. Further research and development needs are also considered, with summaries of findings and recommendations for the direction of future R&D efforts.

Nuclear Energy Data is the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency's annual compilation of statistics and country reports documenting the status of nuclear power in the OECD area. Information provided by member country governments includes statistics on installed generating capacity, total electricity produced by all sources and by nuclear power, nuclear energy policies and fuel cycle developments, as well as projected generating capacity and electricity production to 2035, where available. Total electricity generation at nuclear power plants and the share of electricity production from nuclear power plants declined in 2012 as a result of operational issues at some facilities and suspended operation at all but two reactors in Japan. Nuclear safety was further strengthened in 2012 following safety reviews prompted by the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident. Governments committed to maintaining nuclear power in the energy mix pursued initiatives to increase nuclear generating capacity. In Turkey, plans were finalised for the construction of the first four reactors for commercial electricity production. Further details on these and other developments are provided in the publication's numerous tables, graphs and country reports.

This publication contains 'StatLinks'. For each StatLink, the reader will find a URL which leads to the corresponding spreadsheet. These links work in the same way as an Internet link.

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides subscribers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue include: “The post-Fukushima Daiichi response: The role of the Convention on Nuclear Safety in strengthening the legal framework for nuclear safety”; “Adequate protection after the Fukushima Daiichi acccident: A constant in a world of change”; “Safer nuclear energy through a higher degree of internationalisation? International involvement versus national sovereignty”; and “Special report on the Second Annual Meeting of the Nuclear Law Association, ‘India’s nuclear energy sector: Business opportunities and legal challenges’, 2 March 2013, Mumbai, India”.

Particle accelerators have evolved over the last decades from simple devices to powerful machines, and are having an increasingly important impact on research, technology and daily life. Today they have a wide range of applications in many areas including material science and medical applications. In recent years, new technological and research applications have helped to define requirements while the number of accelerator facilities in operation, being commissioned, designed or planned has grown significantly. Their parameters, which include the beam energy, currents and intensities, and target composition, can vary widely, giving rise to new radiation shielding aspects and problems.
Particle accelerators must be operated in safe ways to protect operators, the public and the environment. As the design and use of these facilities evolve, so must the analytical methods used in the safety analyses. These workshop proceedings review the state of the art in radiation shielding of accelerator facilities and irradiation targets. They also evaluate progress in the development of modelling methods used to assess the effectiveness of such shielding as part of safety analyses.

The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC) Annotated Glossary is a review of concepts central to societal decision making about radioactive waste management. It records the evolution in understanding that has taken place in the group as the FSC has worked with these concepts over time. This should be a useful resource not only for new FSC participants but also for others: this annotated glossary forms a good reference handbook for future texts regarding societal aspects of radioactive waste management and its governance.

Materials performance is critical to the safe and economic operation of any nuclear system. As the international community pursues the development of Generation IV reactor concepts and accelerator-driven transmutation systems, it will be increasingly necessary to develop advanced materials capable of tolerating the more challenging environments of these new systems. The international community supports numerous materials research programmes, with each country determining its individual focus on a case-by-case basis. In many instances, similar alloys of materials systems are being studied in several countries, providing the opportunity for collaborative and cross-cutting research that benefits different systems.

This report is a snapshot of the current materials programmes supporting the development of advanced concepts. The descriptions of the research are grouped by concept, and national programmes are described within each concept. The report provides an overall sense of the importance of materials research worldwide and the opportunities for synergy among the countries represented in this overview.

The International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX) series, organised under the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Working Party on Nuclear Emergency Matters (WPNEM), has proven successful in testing, investigating and improving national and international response arrangements for nuclear accidents and radiological emergencies. Early INEX exercises focused on the national and international aspects of early phase management of nuclear power plant emergencies. Starting with INEX-3 (2005-2006), the international community began looking at issues concerning longer-term consequence management. In 2008, the WPNEM started preparing the INEX-4 series, which was conducted in 2010-2011 and addressed consequence management and transition to recovery in response to malicious acts involving the release of radioactive materials in an urban setting. The goal of INEX-4 was to provide a basis for enhancing emergency management through the exchange of exercise experiences from participating countries and the identification of good practices and common issues. This summary report provides general outcomes based on country responses to the INEX-4 evaluation questionnaire and suggests areas of focus for future consideration.

The feasibility and costs of spent nuclear fuel management and the consequent disposal of ultimate waste continue to be the subject of public debate in many countries, with particular concern often expressed over the lack of progress in implementing final disposal. Uncertainties about back-end costs and the financial risks associated with management of the back end have also been singled out as possible deterrents to investment in new nuclear power plants.

This report offers an appraisal of economic issues and methodologies for the management of spent nuclear fuel and high-level waste from commercial power reactors. It includes a review of different back-end options and current policies and practices, with a focus on the cost estimates for these options and the funding mechanisms in place or under consideration in OECD/NEA countries. A generic economic assessment of high-level estimates of back-end cost impacts on fuel cycle costs is undertaken for selected idealised scenarios, by means of a simple static model. Sensitivity analyses are conducted for the evaluation of uncertainties in major components and the identification of cost drivers. Since factors other than economics are an important part of the decision-making process, an analysis of the influence of key qualitative parameters in the selection of back-end strategies is also presented in this report.

This report outlines the response of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and its member countries to the March 2011 accident at TEPCO's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. All NEA members took early action to ensure and confirm the continued safety of their nuclear power plants and the protection of the public. Consistent with its objective of maintaining and further developing the scientific, technological and legal bases for safe nuclear energy, the NEA has assisted its member countries in their individual and collective responses to the accident. It has also provided direct assistance to the relevant authorities in Japan. These actions are summarised in the report along with lessons learnt thus far. Key messages are offered as a means to help strengthen the basis for nuclear safety and its implementation in all countries using nuclear power.

Future fuel cycle characteristics, feasibility and acceptability will be crucial for the continued development of nuclear energy, especially in the post-Fukushima context. Fuel cycle choices have both long- and short-term impacts, and a holistic assessment of their characteristics, cost and associated safety issues is of paramount importance. This report seeks to associate quantified impacts with foreseeable nuclear energy development in different world regions. It gives initial results in terms of uranium resource availability, fuel cycle facility deployment and reactor types. In particular, the need to achieve short doubling times with future fast reactors is investigated and quantified. The report also provides guidelines for performing future studies to account for a wider range of hypotheses on energy demand growth, different hypotheses regarding uranium resource availability and different types of reactors to be deployed.

The Joint Evaluated Fission and Fusion (JEFF) Project is a collaborative effort among OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Data Bank member countries to develop a reference nuclear data library for use in different energy applications. These data can be used to help improve the safety and economy of existing installations, as well as to design advanced nuclear reactors and their associated fuel cycles, including radioactive waste management. The JEFF-3.1 library contains several different data types, including neutron and proton interaction data, neutron activation data, radioactive decay data, fission yield data and thermal scattering data. This report describes the initial validation of the complete JEFF-3.1 library for thermal reactors, fuel cycle, storage and reprocessing, fusion technology and intermediate energy applications. It will be useful for scientists and engineers in national laboratories, universities and industry who use basic nuclear data, and is particularly suitable for those who work with application libraries based on JEFF-3.1.

The JEF/DOC and EFFDOC working documents cited in the report are available online at www.oecd-nea.org/dbdata/nds_jefreports/jefreport-23/.

In order to provide experts with a forum to present and discuss developments in the field of partitioning and transmutation (P&T), the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has been organising, since 1990, a series of biennial information exchange meetings on actinide and fission product P&T.

These proceedings contain all the technical papers presented at the 11th Information Exchange Meeting, which was held on 1-4 November 2010 in San Francisco, California, USA. The meeting covered national programmes on P&T; fuel cycle strategies and transition scenarios; waste forms and geological disposal; transmutation fuels and targets; pyro and aqueous processes; transmutation physics and materials; and transmutation system design, performance and safety.

After spent nuclear fuel (SNF) is discharged from a nuclear reactor, fuel composition and reactivity continue to vary as a function of time due to the decay of unstable nuclides. Accurate predictions of the concentrations of long-lived radionuclides in SNF, which represent a significant potential hazard to human beings and to the environment over a very long period, are particularly necessary for radiological dose assessments.
This report assesses the ability of existing computer codes and associated nuclear data to predict isotopic compositions and their corresponding neutron multiplication factor (keff) values for pressurised-water-reactor (PWR) UO2 fuel at 50 GWd/MTU burn-up in a generic spent fuel cask configuration. Fuel decay compositions and keff values have been calculated for 30 post-irradiation time steps out to one million years.

The way in which nuclear licensees’ organisations are structured and resourced clearly has a potential impact on nuclear safety. As experience has continually demonstrated, operating organisations with a strong training programme for personnel, adequate resourcing and overall effective leadership and management perform more effectively in times of crisis than those lacking in one or more of these areas. In parallel, the nuclear industry is developing new resource deployment strategies which are making increased use of contractors and leading to changes in organisational structure, which in turn create challenges for the continued safe operation of nuclear facilities. This technical opinion paper represents the consensus among human and organisational factor specialists in NEA member and associated countries on the methods, approaches and good practices to be followed in designing an organisation with a strong safety focus while meeting business needs. It also considers some of the attributes that an organisation which is effectively managing its resources and capabilities might demonstrate.

Managing the ageing of fuel cycle facilities (FCFs) means, as for other nuclear installations, ensuring the availability of required safety functions throughout their service life while taking into account the changes that occur with time and use. This technical opinion paper identifies a set of good practices by benchmarking strategies and good practices on coping with physical ageing and obsolescence from the facility design stage until decommissioning. It should be of particular interest to nuclear safety regulators, fuel cycle facilities operators and fuel cycle researchers.

Nuclear power reactors have become a major source of electricity supply in many countries and, based on the experience of safe and reliable operation, many operators have sought and received authorisation for long-term operation beyond the period assumed in the plant’s design. Acceptance of a nuclear power plant for long-term operation must be based on evidence that the plant will operate safely over the extended period of service. This requires an assessment of the current and projected condition of the plant and, in particular, of the systems that perform fundamental safety functions, to ensure that these systems will continue to perform their safety functions during the extended operating period. Programmes for long-term operation must be informed by operating experience and must also consider and assess environmental impacts.
This guidance document is intended to assist regulatory organisations in assessing and approving the long-term operation safety assessments submitted by operators. It outlines the fundamental principles that should govern decisions on authorisation for long-term operation. It also describes regulatory challenges and considerations that may arise in an assessment of a plant for long-term operation.

This volume is the 12th in the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) "Chemical Thermodynamics" series. It is based on a critical review of the thermodynamic properties of tin, its solid compounds and aqueous complexes, carried out as part of the NEA Thermochemical Database Project Phase III (TDB III). The database system developed at the OECD/NEA Data Bank ensures consistency not only within the recommended data sets of tin, but also among all the data sets published in the series. This volume will be of particular interest to scientists carrying out performance assessments of deep geological disposal sites for radioactive waste.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is increasingly being adopted in nuclear reactor safety (NRS) analyses as a tool which enables a better description of specific safety-relevant phenomena occurring in nuclear reactors. The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) has in recent years conducted important activities in the CFD area, including the organisation of three workshops. The CFD4NRS-3 workshop was the third in the series and was held in Bethesda, Maryland, USA on 14-16 September 2010. A total of 200 experts participated. These proceedings contain the 4 keynote lectures, including the synthesis of results for the Tee-junction Benchmark, and the 57 technical papers presented at the workshop.

Disposal in engineered facilities built in stable, deep geological formations is the reference solution for permanently isolating long-lived radioactive waste from the human biosphere. This management method is designed to be intrinsically safe and final, meaning that it is not dependent on human presence or intervention in order to fulfil its safety goal. Selecting the site of a waste repository brings up a range of issues involving scientific knowledge, technical capacity, ethical values, territorial planning, community well-being and more. Bringing to fruition the multi-decade task of siting and developing a repository demands a strong national commitment and significant regional and local involvement.
This collective statement by the Radioactive Waste Management Committee of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency recognises the advances made towards greater transparency and dialogue among the diverse stakeholders concerned and identifies the fundamental elements needed to support national commitment and to foster territorial involvement. It concludes that technical and societal partners can develop shared confidence in the safety of geological repositories and jointly carry these projects forward.

Fuel transuranics (TRU) multi-recycling is a mandatory feature if both the resource sustainability and the waste minimisation objectives for future fuel cycles are to be pursued. The resulting TRU transmutation can be implemented in fast neutron spectrum reactors according to two main options commonly referred to as the homogeneous and heterogeneous modes.

In this study, the two alternatives have been compared in terms of reactor core feasibility, fuel development and impact on the fuel cycle. The multi-criteria analysis indicates that there are major challenges in minor actinide-loaded fuel development, its experimental validation and possibly in its reprocessing. Both modes of recycling have an impact on the overall fuel cycle, even if at different stages, for example complex target fabrication and handling in the case of heterogeneous recycling and full core fuel fabrication in the case of homogeneous recycling. The study finds that an economic evaluation according to specific implementation scenarios should still be undertaken.

The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP), originally initiated at the national level by the US Department of Energy in 1992, became an official activity of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in 1995.

This handbook contains criticality safety benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments performed at various critical facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by criticality safety engineers to validate calculation techniques used to establish minimum subcritical margins for operations with fissile material and to determine criticality alarm requirement and placement. Many of the specifications are also useful for nuclear data testing. Example calculations are presented; these calculations do not, however, constitute a validation of the codes or cross-section data.

The evaluated criticality safety benchmark data are presented in nine volumes, containing over 58 000 pages and 533 evaluations with benchmark specifications for 4 552 critical, near-critical or subcritical configurations, 24 criticality alarm placement/shielding configurations with multiple dose points for each, and 200 configurations that have been categorised as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications.

New to the handbook are benchmark specifications for the GROTESQUE: Complex Geometric Arrangement of Unreflected HEU (93.15) Metal Pieces experiment (see front cover) that was performed by John T. Mihalczo at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory Critical Experiment Facility in June 1964.

The International Criticality Safety Benchmark Evaluation Project (ICSBEP), originally initiated at the national level by the US Department of Energy in 1992, became an official activity of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in 1995.
This handbook contains criticality safety benchmark specifications that have been derived from experiments performed at various critical facilities around the world. The benchmark specifications are intended for use by criticality safety engineers to validate calculation techniques used to establish minimum subcritical margins for operations with fissile material and to determine criticality alarm requirement and placement. Many of the specifications are also useful for nuclear data testing. Example calculations are presented; these calculations do not, however, constitute a validation of the codes or cross-section data.
The evaluated criticality safety benchmark data are presented in nine volumes, containing over 65 000 pages and 549 evaluations with benchmark specifications for over 4 700 critical, near-critical or subcritical configurations, 24 criticality alarm placement/shielding configurations with multiple dose points for each, and 200 configurations that have been categorised as fundamental physics measurements that are relevant to criticality safety applications.
New to the handbook are benchmark specifications for the Water-moderated Square-pitched U(6.90)O2 Fuel Rod Lattices with 0.67 Fuel-to-water Ratio experiments (see front cover) that were performed by a team of experimenters at Sandia National Laboratories between 2009 and 2012.

Cost estimation for the decommissioning of nuclear facilities can vary considerably in format, content and practice both within and across countries. These differences may have legitimate reasons but make the process of reviewing estimates complicated and the estimates themselves difficult to defend. Hence, the joint initiative of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the European Commission (EC) was undertaken to propose a standard itemisation of decommissioning costs either directly for the production of cost estimates or for mapping estimates onto a standard, common structure for purposes of comparison. This report updates the earlier itemisation published in 1999 and takes into account experience accumulated thus far. The revised cost itemisation structure has sought to ensure that all costs within the planned scope of a decommissioning project may be reflected. The report also provides general guidance on developing a decommissioning cost estimate, including detailed advice on using the structure.

The Joint Evaluated Fission and Fusion File is an evaluated library produced through international collaboration among Data Bank member countries co-ordinated by the NEA Data Bank. As of February 2012, JEFF 3.1.2 is the latest update of the general purpose neutron data library.

Following the TEPCO Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, extraordinary efforts were undertaken in Japan to implement a compensation scheme for the proper and efficient indemnification of the affected victims. This publication provides English translations of key Japanese legislative and administrative texts and other implementing guidance, as well as several commentaries by Japanese experts in the field of third party nuclear liability.

The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has prepared this publication in co-operation with the government of Japan to share Japan’s recent experience in implementing its nuclear liability and compensation regime. The material presented in the publication should provide valuable insights for those wishing to better understand the regime applied to compensate the victims of the accident and for those working on potential improvements in national regimes and the international framework for third party nuclear liability.

One of the major achievements of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) is the knowledge it has helped to generate through the organisation of joint international research projects. Such projects, primarily in the areas of nuclear safety and radioactive waste management, enable interested countries, on a cost-sharing basis, to pursue research or the sharing of data with respect to particular areas or issues. Over the years, more than 30 joint projects have been conducted with wide participation of member countries.
The purpose of this report is to describe the achievements of the OECD/NEA joint projects on nuclear safety research that have been carried out over the past three decades, with a particular focus on thermal-hydraulics, fuel behaviour and severe accidents. It shows that the resolution of specific safety issues in these areas has greatly benefited from the joint projects’ activities and results. It also highlights the added value of international co-operation for maintaining unique experimental infrastructure, preserving skills and generating new knowledge.

Safety assessment is an interdisciplinary approach that focuses on the scientific understanding and performance assessment of safety functions as well as the hazards associated with a geological disposal facility. It forms a central part of the safety case, and the results of the safety assessments provide evidence to support decision making. The goals of the NEA project on “Methods for Safety Assessment for Geological Disposal Facilities for Radioactive Waste” (MeSA) were to examine and document methods used in safety assessment for radioactive waste disposal facilities, to generate collective views based on the methods’ similarities and differences, and to identify future work. The project reviewed a number of approaches used by various national and international organisations. Following the comprehensive review, a generic safety case with a safety assessment flowchart was developed and is presented herein. The elaboration of the safety concept, the use of safety functions, the implication of uncertainties and the formulation of scenarios are also discussed.

The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) first published in 2000 Nuclear Education and Training: Cause for Concern?, which highlighted significant issues in the availability of human resources for the nuclear industry. Ten years on, Nuclear Education and Training: From Concern to Capability considers what has changed in that time and finds that, while some countries have taken positive actions, in a number of others human resources could soon be facing serious challenges in coping with existing and potential new nuclear facilities. This is exacerbated by the increasing rate of retirement as the workforce ages. This report provides a qualitative characterisation of human resource needs and appraises instruments and programmes in nuclear education and training initiated by various stakeholders in different countries. In this context, it also examines the current and future uses of nuclear research facilities for education and training purposes. Regarding the nuclear training component of workforce competence, it outlines a job taxonomy which could be a basis for addressing the needs of workers across this sector. It presents the taxonomy as a way of enhancing mutual recognition and increasing consistency of education and training for both developed and developing countries.

The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) first published in 2000 Nuclear Education and Training: Cause for Concern?, which highlighted significant issues in the availability of human resources for the nuclear industry. Ten years on, Nuclear Education and Training: From Concern to Capability considers what has changed in that time and finds that, while some countries have taken positive actions, in a number of others human resources could soon be facing serious challenges in coping with existing and potential new nuclear facilities. This is exacerbated by the increasing rate of retirement as the workforce ages. This report provides a qualitative characterisation of human resource needs and appraises instruments and programmes in nuclear education and training initiated by various stakeholders in different countries. In this context, it also examines the current and future uses of nuclear research facilities for education and training purposes. Regarding the nuclear training component of workforce competence, it outlines a job taxonomy which could be a basis for addressing the needs of workers across this sector. It presents the taxonomy as a way of enhancing mutual recognition and increasing consistency of education and training for both developed and developing countries.

Nuclear Energy Data is the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s annual compilation of statistics and country reports documenting the status of nuclear power in the OECD area. Information provided by member country governments includes statistics on installed generating capacity, total electricity produced by all sources and by nuclear power, nuclear energy policies, fuel cycle developments, and projected generating capacity and electricity production to 2035, where available. Following the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in March 2011, total nuclear generating capacity and electricity generation declined, principally because of the permanent shutdown of 12 reactors (8 in Germany and 4 in Japan) and the prolonged shutdown of reactors in Japan. The Fukushima Daiichi accident also prompted safety reviews of existing nuclear facilities and led some governments to adopt nuclear phase-out plans. Other governments remained committed to maintaining nuclear power in the energy mix, in some cases pursuing plans to either increase nuclear generating capacity or, as in the cases of Poland and Turkey, to add nuclear generating capacity for the first time. Further details on these and other developments are provided in the publication’s numerous tables, graphs and country reports.
This publication contains “Statlinks”. For each StatLink the reader will find a url which leads to the corresponding spreadsheet. These links work in the same way as an Internet link.

Meeting the growing demand for energy, and electricity in particular, while addressing the need to curb greenhouse gas emissions and to ensure security of energy supply, is one of the most difficult challenges facing the world’s economies. No single technology can respond to this challenge, and the solution which policy-makers are seeking lies in the diversification of energy sources.

Although nuclear energy currently provides over 20% of electricity in the OECD area and does not emit any carbon dioxide during production, it continues to be seen by many as a controversial technology. Public concern remains over its safety and the management of radioactive waste, and financing such a capital-intensive technology is a complex issue. The role that nuclear power will play in the future depends on the answers to these questions, several of which are provided in this up-to-date review of the status of nuclear energy, as well as on the outcome of research and development on the nuclear fuel cycle and reactor technologies.

This report addresses the increasingly important interactions of variable renewables and dispatchable energy technologies, such as nuclear power, in terms of their effects on electricity systems. These effects add costs to the production of electricity, which are not usually transparent. The report recommends that decision-makers should take into account such system costs and internalise them according to a “generator pays” principle, which is currently not the case. Analysing data from six OECD/NEA countries, the study finds that including the system costs of variable renewables at the level of the electricity grid increases the total costs of electricity supply by up to one-third, depending on technology, country and penetration levels. In addition, it concludes that, unless the current market subsidies for renewables are altered, dispatchable technologies will increasingly not be replaced as they reach their end of life and consequently security of supply will suffer. This implies that significant changes in management and cost allocation will be needed to generate the flexibility required for an economically viable coexistence of nuclear energy and renewables in increasingly decarbonised electricity systems.

This report addresses the increasingly important interactions of variable renewables and dispatchable energy technologies, such as nuclear power, in terms of their effects on electricity systems. These effects add costs to the production of electricity, which are not usually transparent. The report recommends that decision-makers should take into account such system costs and internalise them according to a “generator pays” principle, which is currently not the case. Analysing data from six OECD/NEA countries, the study finds that including the system costs of variable renewables at the level of the electricity grid increases the total costs of electricity supply by up to one-third, depending on technology, country and penetration levels. In addition, it concludes that, unless the current market subsidies for renewables are altered, dispatchable technologies will increasingly not be replaced as they reach their end of life and consequently security of supply will suffer. This implies that significant changes in management and cost allocation will be needed to generate the flexibility required for an economically viable coexistence of nuclear energy and renewables in increasingly decarbonised electricity systems.

Most of the current nuclear fuel safety criteria were established during the 1960s and early 1970s. Although these criteria were validated against experiments with fuel designs available at that time, a number of tests were based on unirradiated fuels. Additional verification was performed as these designs evolved, but mostly with the aim of showing that the new designs adequately complied with existing criteria, and not to establish new limits.

In 1996, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) reviewed existing fuel safety criteria, focusing on new fuel and core designs, new cladding materials and industry manufacturing processes. The results were published in the Nuclear Fuel Safety Criteria Technical Review of 2001. The NEA has since re-examined the criteria. A brief description of each criterion and its rationale are presented in this second edition, which will be of interest to both regulators and industry (fuel vendors, utilities).

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides subscribers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue include "The status of radioactive waste repository development in the United States", "The Radioactive Waste Directive: a necessary step in the management of spent fuel and radioactive waste in the European Union", "The continuing role of item-specific agreements in the IAEA safeguards system" and "Fukushima: liability and compensation".

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides subscribers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue include: "Global nuclear law in the making? Joint exercise of public powers in the nuclear field: the case of the revision of the International Basic Safety Standards", "Italian decommissioning in the post-referendum era", "Through the looking glass: placing India’s new civil liability regime for nuclear damage in context" and "Legal aspects of the control and repression of illicit trafficking of nuclear and other radioactive materials".

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides subscribers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.
Feature articles in this issue include: "A common high standard for nuclear power plant exports: overview and analysis of the Nuclear Power Plant Exporters’ Principles of Conduct"; "The MCP Altona incident: the Canadian regulatory response and framework for the export of uranium"; "Conflict of law issues related to Switzerland’s participation in the Paris Nuclear Third Party Liability Regime"; and "The impact of the Additional Protocol and Strengthened Safeguards: effects on the International Atomic Energy Agency and on states".

The application of lessons learnt from the International Reporting System for Operating Experience (IRS) is an essential element for enhancing the safe operation of nuclear power plants (NPPs) throughout the world. The IRS provides a mechanism for the exchange of information related to the incident, actions taken, root cause analysis and lessons learnt. This feedback on how to adequately remedy, or avoid, possible challenges and precursors is of paramount importance to operational safety. The IRS improves international awareness of potential challenges, actual incidents and “precursors” in NPP operations. The heightened awareness generated by feedback from operating experience has resulted in numerous improvements to equipment, procedures and training in many NPPs. The application of operational feedback also benefits the design of the next generation of NPPs. Operating experience has demonstrated that design modification issues documented in IRS reports can have a significant impact on safety. The IRS is jointly operated and managed by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (OECD/NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

The NEA has undertaken a number of activities following the March 2011 accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan. This brochure contains three extracts from NEA News published in the months following the accident: Fukushima (what happened, consequence, follow-up), published June 2011; Fukushima: liability and compensation, published December 2011; and The NEA integrated response to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear accident, published June 2012. Together these extracts allow the reader to understand better the causes, consequences and importance of the NEA’s response to the Fukushima Daiichi accident (2012).

Deep geological repositories of radioactive waste are designed and licensed based on a model of long-term safety which does not require the active presence of man. During the period of stepwise development of such repositories, reversibility of decisions and retrievability of the waste are widely thought to be beneficial. Reversibility and retrievability are not requirements for long-term safety. They are instead about implementing a process that responds to ethical and precautionary obligations without compromising safety. How are the concepts of reversibility and retrievability understood in the various nuclear countries? How do they appear in national waste management legislation, regulation and operational programmes, and how can they be implemented?
The “R&R” project of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) culminated in an International Conference and Dialogue on Reversibility and Retrievability in December 2010. This open meeting brought together regulators, policy makers, elected officials, experts in social sciences, and representatives of civil society and stakeholder groups in addition to waste management professionals. These proceedings include the texts of 50 presentations and the “International Retrievability Scale” – a tool to support dialogue with stakeholders and to help establish a common international framework.

The most widely adopted solution for the definitive management of high-level radioactive waste involves its emplacement in deep geological repositories whose safety should not depend on the active presence of man. In this context, national programmes are considering whether and how to incorporate the concepts of reversibility of decisions and retrievability of waste, including to what extent retrieval can or should be facilitated at the design stage of a repository, and if so over what timescales.
This brochure delivers the key findings and observations of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) project on reversibility and retrievability conducted from 2007 to 2011 with the participation of 15 countries and 2 international organisations. It outlines the activities undertaken and points to further resources. While focused on deep geological disposal, the pragmatic and precise information provided may also be pertinent to sub-surface disposal and to decision-making processes more generally. This brochure, and related project documents, will be of interest to technical and policy professionals and civil society stakeholders concerned with radioactive waste disposal.

Materials research is a field of growing relevance for innovative nuclear systems, such as Generation IV reactors, critical and sub-critical transmutation systems and fusion devices. For these different systems, structural materials are selected or developed taking into account the specificities of their foreseen operational environment. Since 2007, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has begun organising a series of workshops on Structural Materials for Innovative Nuclear Systems (SMINS) in order to provide a forum to exchange information on current materials research programmes for different innovative nuclear systems. These proceedings include the papers of the second workshop (SMINS-2) which was held in Daejon, Republic of Korea on 31 August-3 September 2010, and hosted by the Korea Atomic Energy Research Institute (KAERI).

Refurbishment and long-term operation (LTO) of existing nuclear power plants (NPPs) today are crucial to the competitiveness of the nuclear industry in OECD countries as existing nuclear power plants produce baseload power at a reliable cost. A number of nuclear power plants, most notably 73 units in the United States (up to 2012), have been granted lifetime extensions of up to 60 years, a development that is being keenly watched in other OECD countries. In many of these (e.g. France, Switzerland), there is no legal end to the operating licence, but continued operation is based on the outcomes of periodic safety reviews.
This study analyses technical and economic data on the upgrade and lifetime extension experience in OECD countries. A multi-criteria assessment methodology is used considering various factors and parameters reflecting current and future financial conditions of operation, political and regulatory risks, the state of the plants’ equipment and the general role of nuclear power in the country’s energy policy.
The report shows that long-term operation of nuclear power plants has significant economic advantages for most utilities envisaging LTO programmes. In most cases, the continued operation of NPPs for at least ten more years is profitable even taking into account the additional costs of post-Fukushima modifications, and remains cost-effective compared to alternative replacement sources.

In the area of radioactive waste management, the regulator or safety authority has emerged in recent years as a principal actor in the eyes of civil society. This study shows how regulators are increasing their interaction with society while still retaining – or ­reinforcing – their independence and how they play their role within the stepwise ­licensing and decision-making processes now adopted in most countries. Safety is ensured by a “regulatory system”, in which a host of players, including local ­stakeholders, have a vital role to play. The technical regulator has come to be considered as the “people’s expert”, concentrating knowledge useful to local communities as they deliberate the hosting of a waste storage or disposal facility.
This report provides a useful update on the changing role of the regulator as well as insights that will be helpful to the many countries that are considering, or are preparing for, storage or disposal of radioactive waste either in near-surface facilities or deeper underground. While it focuses on the developments in waste management and disposal, the trends it describes are probably relevant throughout the nuclear field.

An important activity of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in the field of radioactive waste management is the organisation of independent, international peer reviews of national studies and projects. This report provides an international peer review of the long-term safety strategy and assessment being developed by the Belgian Agency for Radioactive Waste and Enriched Fissile Materials, ONDRAF/NIRAS, as part of the licence application for the construction and operation of a surface disposal facility for short-lived, low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste in the municipality of Dessel, Belgium. The review was carried out by an International Review Team comprised of seven international specialists, all of whom were free of conflict of interest and chosen to bring complementary expertise to the review. To be accessible to both specialist and non-specialist readers, the review findings are provided at several levels of detail.

Sweden is at the forefront among countries developing plans for a deep geological repository of highly radioactive waste. There is no such repository in operation yet worldwide, but Sweden, Finland and France are approaching the licensing stage. At the request of the Swedish government, the NEA organised an international peer review of the post-closure radiological safety case produced by the Swedish Nuclear Fuel and Waste Management Company (SKB) in support of the application for a general licence to construct and operate a spent nuclear fuel geological repository in the municipality of Östhammar. The purpose of the review was to help the Swedish government, the public and relevant organisations by providing an international reference regarding the maturity of SKB’s spent fuel disposal programme vis-à-vis best practices in long-term disposal safety and radiological protection. The International Review Team (IRT) consisted of ten international specialists, who were free of conflict of interest with the SKB and brought complementary expertise to the review. This report provides the background and findings of the international peer review. The review’s findings are presented at several levels of detail in order to be accessible to both specialist and non-specialist readers.

This report assesses the role that nuclear energy can play in supporting the transition to a low-carbon energy system. It begins by considering the greenhouse gas emissions from the full nuclear fuel cycle, reviewing recent studies on indirect emissions and assessing the impact that nuclear power could make in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
The report provides estimates of the construction rates that would be needed to meet the projected expansion of nuclear power foreseen by many energy scenarios published by international organisations. It then assesses the economic, technical, societal and institutional challenges represented by such an expansion to identify the most significant barriers. The capacity of nuclear power plants to operate in an electricity system with a large share of renewables, and the impact of smart grid technologies are also examined. Finally, long-term prospects for nuclear energy are discussed in terms of development of new reactor and fuel cycle technologies, non-electric applications and new operational and regulatory constraints that could arise as a consequence of climate change.

The reliable supply of molybdenum-99 (99Mo) and its decay product, technetium-99m (99mTc), is a vital component of modern medical diagnostic practices. At present, most of the global production of 99Mo is from highly enriched uranium (HEU) targets. However, all major 99Mo-producing countries have recently agreed to convert to using low-enriched uranium (LEU) targets to advance important non-proliferation goals, a decision that will have implications for the global supply chain of 99Mo/99mTc and the long-term supply reliability of these medical isotopes.
This study provides the findings and analysis from an extensive examination of the 99Mo/99mTc supply chain by the OECD/NEA High-level Group on the Security of Supply of Medical Radioisotopes (HLG-MR). It presents a comprehensive evaluation of the potential impacts of converting to the use of LEU targets for 99Mo production on the global 99Mo/99mTc market in terms of costs and available production capacity, and the corresponding implications for long-term supply reliability. In this context, the study also briefly discusses the need for policy action by governments in their efforts to ensure a stable and secure long-term supply of 99Mo/99mTc.

A central safety function of radioactive waste disposal repositories is the prevention or sufficient retardation of radionuclide migration to the biosphere. Performance assessment exercises in various countries, and for a range of disposal scenarios, have demonstrated that one of the most important processes providing this safety function is the sorption of radionuclides along potential migration paths beyond the engineered barriers. Thermodynamic sorption models (TSMs) are key for improving confidence in assumptions made about such radionuclide sorption when preparing a repository's safety case. This report presents guidelines for TSM development as well as their application in repository performance assessments. They will be of particular interest to the sorption modelling community and radionuclide migration modellers in developing safety cases for radioactive waste disposal.

Interest in expanding nuclear power to cope with rising demand for energy and potential climate change places increased attention on the nuclear fuel cycle and whether significant moves are being taken towards ensuring sustainability over the long term. Future nuclear power programme decisions will be increasingly based on strategic considerations involving the complete nuclear fuel cycle, as illustrated by the international joint projects for Generation IV reactors. Currently, 90% of installed reactors worldwide operate on a once-through nuclear fuel cycle using uranium-oxide fuel. While closing the fuel cycle has been a general aim for several decades, progress towards that goal has been slow. This report reviews developments in the fuel cycle over the past ten years, potential developments over the next decade and the outlook for the longer term. It analyses technological developments and government actions (both nationally and internationally) related to the fuel cycle, and examines these within a set of sustainability parameters in order to identify trends and to make recommendations for further actions.

In the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, questions are being raised about the future of the uranium market, including as regards the number of reactors expected to be built in the coming years, the amount of uranium required to meet forward demand, the adequacy of identified uranium resources to meet that demand and the ability of the sector to meet reactor requirements in a challenging investment climate. This 24th edition of the ?Red Book?, a recognised world reference on uranium jointly prepared by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency, provides analyses and information from 42 producing and consuming countries in order to address these and other questions. It offers a comprehensive review of world uranium supply and demand as well as data on global uranium exploration, resources, production and reactor-related requirements. It also provides substantive new information on established uranium production centres around the world and in countries developing production centres for the first time. Projections of nuclear generating capacity and reactor-related requirements through 2035, incorporating policy changes following the Fukushima accident, are also featured, along with an analysis of long-term uranium supply and demand issues.

In the wake of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant accident, questions are being raised about the future of the uranium market, including as regards the number of reactors expected to be built in the coming years, the amount of uranium required to meet forward demand, the adequacy of identified uranium resources to meet that demand and the ability of the sector to meet reactor requirements in a challenging investment climate. This 24th edition of the “Red Book”, a recognised world reference on uranium jointly prepared by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency, provides analyses and information from 42 producing and consuming countries in order to address these and other questions. It offers a comprehensive review of world uranium supply and demand as well as data on global uranium exploration, resources, production and reactor-related requirements. It also provides substantive new information on established uranium production centres around the world and in countries developing production centres for the first time. Projections of nuclear generating capacity and reactor-related requirements through 2035, incorporating policy changes following the Fukushima accident, are also featured, along with an analysis of long-term uranium supply and demand issues.

Acceptance criteria for emergency core cooling systems (ECCS) define the maximum temperature and degree of oxidation in order to avoid excessive embrittlement and hence failure of the fuel cladding, which would affect core cooling in the case of a loss-of-coolant accident (LOCA). The criteria are mainly based on experimental data obtained in the 1970s-80s. Several types of tests have been performed to evaluate structural integrity and embrittlement of the cladding under LOCA conditions, and consequently different test methodologies have been used for determining the cladding embrittlement criteria. The current trend towards high burn-up and the use of new cladding alloys has increased the need for international discussions on these test methodologies and acceptance criteria. In response, the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) and its Working Group on Fuel Safety produced this technical opinion paper, which should be of particular interest to nuclear safety regulators, nuclear power plant operators and fuel researchers.

This study assesses the competitiveness of nuclear power against coal- and gas-fired power generation in liberalised electricity markets with either CO2 trading or carbon taxes. It uses daily price data for electricity, gas, coal and carbon from 2005 to 2010, which encompasses the first years of the European Emissions Trading System (EU ETS), the world’s foremost carbon trading framework. The study shows that even with modest carbon pricing, competition for new investment in electricity markets will take place between nuclear energy and gas-fired power generation, with coal-fired power struggling to be profitable. The outcome of the competition between nuclear and gas-fired generation hinges, in addition to carbon pricing, on the capital costs for new nuclear power plant construction, gas prices and the profit margins applied. Strong competition in electricity markets reinforces the attractiveness of nuclear energy, as does carbon pricing, in particular when the latter ranges between USD 40 and USD 70 per tonne of CO2. The data and analyses contained in this study provide a robust framework for assessing cost and investment issues in liberalised electricity markets with carbon pricing.

Radiological protection philosophy, regulation and application have evolved significantly over the last 30 years, adapting to the ever-changing landscapes of scientific understanding and societal values. This report provides a methodical assessment of these changes. Starting with radiological protection in the 1970s, it describes the philosophical differences between International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) Publication 26, issued in 1977, and ICRP Publication 60, issued in 1990, as well as the regulatory evolution that was necessary to effectively implement the changes. It then examines the philosophical and regulatory changes between ICRP Publication 60 and ICRP Publication 103 of 2007. Although the regulatory changes needed to implement Publication 103 are, in practice, yet to come, the report provides a seasoned view of what these changes will most likely be, and what efforts will be necessary to successfully implement them.

This report provides an overview of experimental facilities that can be used to carry out nuclear safety research for sodium fast reactors and identifies priorities for organising international co-operative programmes at selected facilities. The information has been collected and analysed by a Task Group on Advanced Reactor Experimental Facilities (TAREF) as part of an ongoing initiative of the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) which aims to define and to implement a strategy for the efficient utilisation of facilities and resources for Generation IV reactor systems.

A common theme throughout the series of NEA regulatory guidance reports, or “green booklets”, is the premise that the fundamental objective of all nuclear safety regulatory bodies is to ensure that nuclear facilities are continuously maintained and operated in an acceptably safe manner. In meeting this objective the regulator must bear in mind that it is the operator that has responsibility for safely operating the nuclear facility; the role of the regulator is to assess and to provide assurance regarding the operator’s activities in terms of assuming that responsibility.
The full series of these reports was brought together in one edition for the first time in 2009 and was widely found to be a useful resource. This second edition comprises 14 volumes, including the latest on The Nuclear Regulator's Role in Assessing Licensee Oversight of Vendor and Other Contracted Services. The reports address various challenges that could apply throughout the lifetime of a nuclear facility, including design, siting, manufacturing, construction, commissioning, operation, maintenance and decommissioning. The compilation is intended to serve as a knowledge management tool both for current regulators and the new nuclear professionals and organisations entering the regulatory field.

Nuclear Energy Data, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s annual compilation of statistics and country reports on nuclear energy, contains official information provided by OECD member country governments on plans for new nuclear plant construction, nuclear fuel cycle developments as well as current and projected nuclear generating capacity to 2035. For the first time, it includes data for Chile, Estonia, Israel and Slovenia, which recently became OECD members. Key elements of this edition show a 2% increase in nuclear and total electricity production and a 0.5% increase in nuclear generating capacity. They also show excess conversion and enrichment capacities in OECD Europe, and insufficient capacity to meet requirements in the North American and Pacific regions. Further details are provided in the publication’s numerous tables, graphs and reports.
This publication contains “Statlinks”. For each StatLink the reader will find a url which leads to the corresponding spreadsheet. These links work in the same way as an Internet link.

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides subscribers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations. Feature articles in this issue address the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl accident, Japanese legislation in light of the Fukushima Daiichi accident and the long-term operation of nuclear power plants.

This report provides a comparative analysis of different studies performed to assess the potential impact of partitioning and transmutation (P&T) on different types of geological repositories for radioactive waste in various licensing and regulatory environments. Criteria, metrics and impact measures have been analysed and compared with the goal of providing an objective comparison of the state of the art to help shape decisions on options for future advanced fuel cycles.
P&T allows a reduction of the inventory of the emplaced materials which can have a significant impact on the repository. Such a reduction can also make the uncertainty about repository performance less important both during normal evolution and in the case of disruptive scenarios. While P&T will never replace the need for waste repositories, it has the potential to significantly improve public perception regarding the ability to effectively manage radioactive waste by largely reducing the transuranic (TRU) waste masses to be stored and, consequently, to improve public acceptance of the geological repositories. Both issues are important for the future sustainability of nuclear power.

One of the most important aspects of post-accident consequence management is the involvement of stakeholders: in the planning, preparation and execution as well as in sustaining efforts over the long term. Having recognised the significance of stakeholder participation in several International Nuclear Emergency Exercises (INEX), the NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) decided to organise the Practices and Experience in Stakeholder Involvement for Post-nuclear Emergency Management Workshop to explore these issues. This summary highlights the key issues discussed during the workshop, which brought together 75 emergency management and communication specialists from 16 countries. In light of the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, the experience shared during this workshop will be central to further improving national emergency management arrangements.

Decisions regarding radiological protection are informed by science, including its uncertainties, influenced by stakeholder concerns, driven by prevailing circumstances, and broadly based on values and judgments. However, the processes by which protection decisions are taken do not always sufficiently articulate the scientific and value-judgment elements on which decisions are based. To assist decision makers at all levels to further clarify the various aspects of their decisions, and to assist scientists and regulators in better understanding each other’s contributions to radiological protection decisions, the NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) has held two workshops addressing science and values in radiological protection. This report summarises the discussions and conclusions of the first two workshops in this innovative series, and suggests the way forward in preparing the discussions at the third science and values workshop.

The accelerator-driven system (ADS) is a potential transmutation system option as part of partitioning and transmutation strategies for radioactive waste in advanced nuclear fuel cycles. These proceedings contain all the technical papers presented at the workshop on Technology and Components of Accelerator-driven Systems held on 15-17 March 2010 in Karlsruhe, Germany. The workshop provided experts with a forum to present and discuss state-of-the-art developments in the field of ADS and neutron sources. It included a special session on the EUROTRANS as well as four technical sessions covering current ADS experiments and test facilities, accelerators, neutron sources and subcritical systems.

Contracted services are an integral part of the design, construction and operation of a nuclear facility. Changes in the nuclear industry sector, including varied availability of nuclear expertise, the expansion of the international supply market and the introduction of new technologies, have tended to increase licensees’ use of contracted services. These changes have created challenges for licensees and regulators related to the retention of nuclear expertise, the effective management of the interfaces between the licensees and contractors, and the oversight of contractor manufacturing quality in the context of greater multinational diversity. The regulatory body must address these challenges to provide assurance that the licensees maintain their responsibility for the safety of the facilities, regardless of who provides goods and services or where the activities involved in the supply chain take place. This report is intended to assist regulatory bodies in assessing their current practices for the regulatory oversight of licensees’ use of contractors, and adapting them where necessary to meet the evolving situation.

The reliable supply of molybdenum-99 (99Mo) and its decay product, technetium-99m (99mTc), is a vital component of modern medical diagnostic practices. Disruptions in the supply chain of these radioisotopes can delay or prevent important medical testing services. Unfortunately, supply reliability has declined over the past decade, due to unexpected or extended shutdowns at the few ageing, 99Mo-producing, research reactors and processing facilities. These shutdowns have recently created global supply shortages.

This report provides the findings and analysis of two years of extensive examination of the 99Mo/99mTc supply chain by the OECD/NEA High-level Group on the Security of Supply of Medical Radioisotopes (HLG-MR). It puts forth a comprehensive policy approach that would help ensure long-term supply security of 99Mo/99mTc, detailing the essential steps to be taken by governments, industry and the health community to address the vulnerabilities of the supply chain, including its economic structure.

Interest in expanding nuclear power to cope with rising demand for energy and potential climate change places increased attention on the nuclear fuel cycle and whether significant moves are being taken towards ensuring sustainability over the long term. Future nuclear power programme decisions will be increasingly based on strategic considerations involving the complete nuclear fuel cycle, as illustrated by the international joint projects for Generation IV reactors. Currently, 90% of installed reactors worldwide operate on a once-through nuclear fuel cycle using uranium-oxide fuel. While closing the fuel cycle has been a general aim for several decades, progress towards that goal has been slow. This report reviews developments in the fuel cycle over the past ten years, potential developments over the next decade and the outlook for the longer term. It analyses technological developments and government actions (both nationally and internationally) related to the fuel cycle, and examines these within a set of sustainability parameters in order to identify trends and to make recommendations for further actions.

For the successful deployment of the advanced fuel cycle, it is important to apply partitioning and transmutation (P&T) technologies to radioactive waste management. In order to provide experts with a forum to present and to discuss the latest developments in partitioning and transmutation, the NEA has organised, since 1990, a series of biennial information exchange meetings on actinide and fission product P&T.

These proceedings contain all the technical papers and posters presented at the 10th Information Exchange Meeting, which was held on 6-10 October 2008 in Mito, Japan. The meeting addressed the following technical issues: the impact of P&T on waste management and geological disposal; transmutation fuels and targets; partitioning, waste forms and management; materials, spallation targets and coolants; transmutation physics experiments and nuclear data; and transmutation systems design, performance and safety.

Experience from decommissioning projects suggests that the decommissioning of nuclear power plants could be made easier if it received greater consideration at the design stage and during the operation of the plants. Better forward planning for decommissioning results in lower worker doses and reduced costs. When appropriate design measures are not taken at an early stage, their introduction later in the project becomes increasingly difficult. Hence, their early consideration may lead to smoother and more effective decommissioning.

It is now common practice to provide a preliminary decommissioning plan as part of the application for a licence to operate a nuclear facility. This means, in turn, that decommissioning issues are being considered during the design process. Although many design provisions aiming at improved operation and maintenance will be beneficial for decommissioning as well, designers also need to consider issues that are specific to decommissioning, such as developing sequential dismantling sequences and providing adequate egress routes. These issues and more are discussed in this report.

In the field of coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics computation there is a need to enhance scientific knowledge in order to develop advanced modelling techniques for new nuclear technologies and concepts, as well as for current applications.

Recently developed “best-estimate” computer code systems for modelling 3-D coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics transients in nuclear cores and for coupling of the core phenomena and system dynamics (PWR, BWR, VVER) need to be compared against each other and validated against results from experiments. International benchmark studies have been set up for that purpose.

The present volume is the last in a series of four and summarises the results of the third benchmark exercise, which analyses a turbine trip (TT) in a BWR in its entirety, involving pressurisation events in which the coupling between core phenomena and system dynamics plays an important role. Exercise 3 also analyses four extreme scenarios which allowed participants to test the capabilities of their code(s) in terms of coupling and feedback modelling. The data made available from experiments carried out at the plant make the present benchmark particularly valuable. The data used are from events at the Peach Bottom 2 reactor (a GE-designed BWR/4).

Nuclear accident risks are raised frequently in discussions of the acceptability of nuclear power generation, often framed in the context of the Three Mile Island and Chernobyl accidents. In reality, the safety record of nuclear power plants, by comparison with other electricity generation sources, is very good. This report describes how safety has been enhanced in nuclear power plants over the years, as the designs have progressed from Generation I to Generation III, and why it is important that safety remain the highest priority. This is illustrated by considering core damage frequencies and large radioactive release frequencies for each generation of nuclear power plants. It also compares severe accident data (those resulting in five or more fatalities) between different energy sources, both for immediate fatalities and for delayed (latent) fatalities, recognising that the latter data are often more difficult to estimate. Finally, it uses results of opinion surveys to analyse public confidence in nuclear operations and how this is correlated with trust in legislation and regulatory systems. It has been written for a general audience.

This report is based on a study carried out by the NEA Decommissioning Cost Estimation Group (DCEG) on decommissioning cost elements, estimation practices and reporting requirements. Its findings indicate that cost methodologies need to be updated continuously using cost data from actual decommissioning projects and hence, systematic approaches need to be implemented to collect these data. The study also concludes that changes in project scope may have the greatest impact on project costs. Such changes must therefore be identified immediately and incorporated into the estimate. Finally, the report notes that more needs to be done to facilitate the comparison of estimates, for example by providing a reporting template for national estimates.

Experience from decommissioning projects suggests that the decommissioning of nuclear power plants could be made easier if this aspect received greater consideration at the design stage and during operation of the plants. Better forward planning for decommissioning results in lower worker doses and reduced costs. When appropriate design measures are not taken at an early stage, their introduction later in the project becomes increasingly difficult. Hence, their early consideration may lead to smoother and more effective decommissioning operations. This report provides an overview of key decommissioning issues which are useful to consider when designing new nuclear power plants.

Since 2002, the NEA has been actively facilitating the detailed discussion of the evolving system of radiological protection in an Asian context. Its work in this area has included four previous conferences to discuss various International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) draft general recommendations. The Fifth Asian Regional Conference on the Evolution of the System of Radiological Protection was the first in this series to be focused directly on the implementation of the new ICRP recommendations. This conference report provides very useful, practical insight into the Asian approach to implementing this new radiological protection philosophy.

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is to an increasing extent being adopted in nuclear reactor safety (NRS) analyses as a tool that enables a better description of specific safety-relevant phenomena occurring in nuclear reactors. The NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) has in recent years conducted important activities in the CFD area, including the organisation of two workshops. The “XCFD4NRS” workshop was the second in the series and was held in Grenoble, France in September 2008. A total of 147 experts from 22 countries took part. These proceedings contain the five keynote lectures, summaries of the activities of three CFD writing groups and the 59 technical papers presented at the workshop.

Radioactive waste is associated with all phases of the nuclear fuel cycle as well as the use of radioactive materials in medicine, research and industry. For the most hazardous and long-lived waste, the solution being investigated worldwide is disposal in engineered repositories deep underground. The importance of geoscientific information in selecting a site for geological disposal has long been recognised, but there has been growing acknowledgement of the broader role of this information in assessing and documenting the safety of disposal. The OECD/NEA Approaches and Methods for Integrating Geological Information in the Safety Case (AMIGO) project has demonstrated that geological data and understanding serve numerous roles in safety cases. The project, which ran from 2002 to 2008, underscored the importance of integrating geoscientific information in the development of a disposal safety case and increasingly in the overall process of repository development, including, for example, siting decisions and ensuring the practical feasibility of repository layout and engineering.

The NEA International Nuclear Data Evaluation Co-operation programme brings together evaluation projects being carried out in Japan (JENDL), the United States (ENDF), Europe (JEFF) and non-OECD countries (BROND, CENDL and FENDL). The Nuclear Data Section of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) sponsors the participation of evaluation projects from non-OECD countries.

The Co-operation programme was established to promote the exchange of information on nuclear data evaluations, measurements, nuclear model calculations, validation and related topics, as well as to provide a framework for co-operative activities among the participating projects. The Co-operation programme assesses needs for nuclear data improvements and addresses those needs by initiating joint evaluation and/or measurement efforts. Expert groups are established to solve specific common nuclear data problems. Each expert group produces a final report of its findings.

This CD-ROM contains the full collection of the expert group reports as of January 2010.

This publication commemorates the International School of Nuclear Law which is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2010. The purpose of the publication is to provide an overview of the international nuclear law instruments, their background, content and development over the years and to present an outlook on future needs in the field of international nuclear law. Renowned experts in the nuclear law field have contributed scholarly papers on the various aspects of international nuclear law, including international institutions, protection against ionising radiation, nuclear safety, non-proliferation of nuclear weapons and safeguards, nuclear security, transport of nuclear material and fuel, management of spent fuel and radioactive waste, liability, compensation and insurance for nuclear damages, environmental protection and international trade in nuclear material and equipment. This publication is dedicated to the school?s 500+ alumni from all around the world.

The Joint Evaluated File (JEF) project was started in 1982 as a collaborative project among NEA Data Bank member countries. The main objective is to provide participating countries with a common and unique source of nuclear data for the calculation and prediction of different nuclear applications. The first version of the JEF file was issued in 1985, and was followed in spring 1993 by a second version (JEF-2.2). An improved, third version was developed in collaboration with the European Fusion File (EFF) project and released in 2005 as the Joint Evaluated Fission and Fusion file (JEFF-3.1). Further updates of the radioactive decay data and neutron data sub-libraries were successively released in 2007 and 2009 as JEFF-3.1.1.

This CD-ROM contains the complete collection of JEF(F) Reports as of January 2010. Among the various JEF(F) publications, reports and documents, only the JEF(F) reports should be used as an official reference.

Key concepts of radioactive waste management, such as safety, risk, reversibility and retrievability, carry different meanings for the technical community and for non-technical stakeholders. Similarly, socio-economic concepts, including community, landscape and benefit packages, are interpreted differently by diverse societal groups. Opinions and attitudes are not simply a faithful reflection of decision making, actual events and communicated messages; perceptions and interpretations of events and objects also play a role. This report presents key issues and examples in order to build awareness of the importance of symbols and symbolism in communicating about perceptions and interpretations. It adds to the recognition that dialogue amongst stakeholders is shaped by dimensions of meaning that reach beyond dictionary definitions and are grounded in tradition and social conventions. A better understanding of these less obvious or conspicuous realities should help find additional ways of creating constructive relationships amongst stakeholders.

Many countries have been performing a wide range of research on the partitioning and transmutation (P&T) of minor actinides and fission products. The aim is to provide greater flexibility in terms of radioactive waste management strategies and deploying advanced nuclear fuel cycles. This report describes recent and ongoing national research programmes related to chemical partitioning in the Czech Republic, France, Italy, Japan, Korea, the Russian Federation, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States. European Commission research programmes are also included.

This new edition of Nuclear Energy Data, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s annual compilation of official statistics and country reports on nuclear energy, provides key information on plans for new nuclear plant construction, nuclear fuel cycle developments as well as current and projected nuclear generating capacity to 2035 in OECD member countries. This comprehensive overview provides authoritative information for policy makers, experts and other interested stakeholders.

This nuclear energy roadmap has been prepared jointly by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA). Unlike most other low-carbon energy sources, nuclear energy is a mature technology that has been in use for more than 50 years. The latest designs for nuclear power plants build on this experience to offer enhanced safety and performance, and are ready for wider deployment over the next few years. Several countries are reactivating dormant nuclear programmes, while others are considering nuclear for the first time. In the longer term, there is great potential for new developments in nuclear energy technology to enhance the role of nuclear power in a sustainable energy future.

Considerable experimental and analytical work has been performed in recent years which has led to a broader and deeper understanding of phenomena related to reactivity-initiated accidents (RIAs). Further, newly designed fuels – such as mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel and rods with new cladding – have been introduced which might behave differently than those used previously, both under normal operating conditions and during transients. Compared with 20 years ago, fuel burn-up has been significantly increased. These and other factors have led the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) and its Working Group on Fuel Safety to produce this state-of-the-art report. The report should be of particular interest to nuclear safety regulators, nuclear plant operators and fuel researchers.

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides subscribers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers nuclear legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements and regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue address the independence of the nuclear regulator, the European nuclear safety directive, the nuclear renaissance in Italy and the Temelin case in the European Court of Justice.

The Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law. It provides subscribers with authoritative and comprehensive information on nuclear law developments. Published twice a year in both English and French, it features topical articles written by renowned legal experts, covers legislative developments worldwide and reports on relevant case law, bilateral and international agreements as well as regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue address the Treaty on the Non-proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, competition law and the nuclear sector, and third party liability for nuclear damage (jurisdiction and enforcement, and compensation for environmental damage).

Hydrogen has the potential to play an important role as a sustainable and environmentally acceptable energy carrier in the 21st century. This report describes the scientific and technical challenges associated with the production of hydrogen using heat and/or electricity from nuclear power plants, with special emphasis on recent developments in high-temperature electrolysis and the use of different chemical thermodynamic processes. Economics and market analysis as well as safety aspects of the nuclear production of hydrogen are also discussed.

The Information System on Occupational Exposure (ISOE) was created by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency in 1992 to promote and co-ordinate international co-operative undertakings in the area of occupational radiological protection at nuclear power plants. ISOE provides experts in occupational radiological protection with a forum for communication and exchange of experience.

At the end of 2008, the ISOE programme included 59 participating utilities in 26 countries (278 operating units and 32 shutdown units), as well as the regulatory authorities of 22 countries. The ISOE database, publications, annual symposia and ISOE Network website facilitate the exchange amongst participants of operational experience and lessons learnt in the optimisation of occupational radiological protection.

The Eighteenth Annual Report of the ISOE Programme summarises occupational exposure data trends and ISOE achievements made during 2008. Principal developments in ISOE participating countries are also described.

ISOE is jointly sponsored by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Global demand for electricity continues to grow and numerous new nuclear power plants (NPPs) are being planned or constructed in NEA member countries. Most of these new NPPs will be of the third generation, and will be designed for as long as 80 years of operation. The successful design, construction and operation of these plants will depend broadly on appropriately implementing the lessons from experience accumulated to date.

This case study introduces a policy and technical framework that may be used when formulating technical assistance and guidance for senior managers of NPPs, designers, manufacturers, contractors and authorities responsible for regulating occupational radiation exposure. It is aimed in particular at assisting design and license assessments of new NPPs. Although not targeting the needs of countries introducing nuclear power for the first time, this case study can also provide valuable input on occupational radiological protection issues for the implementation of new nuclear energy programmes.

As national geological disposal programmes progress towards implementation, the concept of “optimisation” and related requirements are receiving increased attention. Exchanges within NEA expert groups have shown that both regulators and implementers would benefit from a review of the relevant concepts and available guidance and experience. This report summarises and reviews the concepts relevant to the “optimisation” of geological disposal systems as they are outlined in national and international guidance. It also presents a set of observations and key questions. Overall, the report shows that, when addressing “optimisation”, there is ample scope for clarifying concepts, facts and possibilities and for ensuring that regulatory guidance is sufficiently precise and implementable. The intention is that this report should serve as a basis for discussion within and beyond NEA committees and expert groups.

National radioactive waste management programmes are in various phases of siting facilities and rely on distinct technical approaches for different categories of waste. In all cases, it is necessary for institutional actors and the potential or actual host community to build a meaningful, workable relationship. Partnership approaches are effective in achieving a balance between the requirements of fair representation and competent participation. With host community support, they also help ensure the desirable combination of a licensable site and management concept as well as a balance between compensation, local control and development opportunities. This report provides up-to-date information on experience with local partnership arrangements in 13 countries. The characteristics, advantages and aims of community partnerships are also described in addition to the concept's evolution over the past decade.

This joint report by the International Energy Agency (IEA) and the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) is the seventh in a series of studies on electricity generating costs. It presents the latest data available for a wide variety of fuels and technologies, including coal and gas (with and without carbon capture), nuclear, hydro, onshore and offshore wind, biomass, solar, wave and tidal as well as combined heat and power (CHP). It provides levelised costs of electricity (LCOE) per MWh for almost 200 plants, based on data covering 21 countries (including four major non-OECD countries), and several industrial companies and organisations. For the first time, the report contains an extensive sensitivity analysis of the impact of variations in key parameters such as discount rates, fuel prices and carbon costs on LCOE. Additional issues affecting power generation choices are also examined.

The study shows that the cost competitiveness of electricity generating technologies depends on a number of factors which may vary nationally and regionally. Readers will find full details and analyses, supported by over 130 figures and tables, in this report which is expected to constitute a valuable tool for decision makers and researchers concerned with energy policies and climate change.

Public attitudes to nuclear power are critical in shaping nuclear policies in OECD/NEA countries and the latter will only be able to make use of this energy source if a well-informed public considers that its benefits outweigh its risks. This report provides a number of insights into public attitudes towards nuclear power. Support for nuclear energy is generally correlated with the level of experience of and knowledge about nuclear power. Interestingly, while the public is generally aware of the contribution of nuclear power to ensuring security of energy supply, its potential contribution to combating climate change is less well recognised. Solving the waste disposal issue would also significantly increase the level of public support. Furthermore, OECD/NEA governments may wish to reflect carefully on how to react to these results as, according to the surveys, they are the least trusted source on energy issues, far behind regulators, non-governmental organisations and scientists.

This 7th Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC) workshop focused on the territorial implementation of France’s high-level and long-lived intermediate-level waste management programme. Sessions addressed the French historical and legislative context, public information, reversibility, environmental monitoring and the issue of memory. Amongst the participants were representatives of local and regional governments, civil society organisations, universities, waste management agencies, institutional authorities and delegates from 13 countries. This report provides a synthesis of the workshop deliberations.

Large volumes of hazardous wastes are produced each year, however only a small proportion of them are radioactive. While disposal options for hazardous wastes are generally well established, some types of hazardous waste face issues similar to those for radioactive waste and also require long-term disposal arrangements. The objective of this NEA study is to put the management of radioactive waste into perspective, firstly by contrasting features of radioactive and hazardous wastes, together with their management policies and strategies, and secondly by examining the specific case of the wastes resulting from carbon capture and storage of fossil fuels. The study seeks to give policy makers and interested stakeholders a broad overview of the similarities and differences between radioactive and hazardous wastes and their management strategies.

Disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel in engineered facilities, or repositories, located deep underground in suitable geological formations is being developed worldwide as the reference solution to protect humans and the environment both now and in the future. Assessing the long-term safety of geological disposal requires developing a comprehensive understanding of the geological environment. The transport pathways are key to this understanding. Of particular interest are fractures in the host rock, which may be either naturally occurring or induced, for example, during the construction of engineered portions of a repository. Such fractures could provide pathways for migration of contaminants.

In argillaceous (clay) formations, there is evidence that, over time, fractures can become less conductive and eventually hydraulically insignificant. This process is commonly termed “self-sealing”. The capacity for self-sealing relates directly to the function of clay host rocks as migration barriers and, consequently, to the safety of deep repositories in those geological settings.

This report – conducted under the auspices of the NEA Clay Club – reviews the evidence and mechanisms for self-sealing properties of clays and evaluates their relevance to geological disposal. Results from laboratory tests, field investigations and geological analogues are considered. The evidence shows that, for many types of argillaceous formations, the understanding of self-sealing has progressed to a level that could justify its inclusion in performance assessments for geological repositories.

Particle accelerators have evolved over the last decades from simple devices to powerful machines, and are having an increasingly important impact on research, technology and daily life. Today they cover a wide range of applications including material science and medical applications. In recent years, requirements from new technological and research applications have emerged while the number of accelerator facilities in operation, being commissioned, designed or planned has significantly grown. Their parameters (such as the beam energy, beam currents and intensities, and target composition) vary widely, giving rise to new radiation shielding aspects and problems.

Particle accelerators must be operated in safe ways to protect operators, the public and the environment. As the design and use of these facilities evolve, so must the analytical methods used in the safety analyses. These workshop proceedings review the state of the art in radiation shielding of accelerator facilities and irradiation targets. They also evaluate progress on the development of modelling methods used to assess the effectiveness of such shielding as part of safety analyses.

The collective experience of the NEA Working Party on Nuclear Emergency Matters (WPNEM), and in particular, the experience from the International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX) series, has shown that it is important to plan and to implement emergency response actions based on a guiding strategic vision. Within this context, Strategic Aspects of Nuclear and Radiological Emergency Management presents a framework of strategic planning elements to be considered by national emergency management authorities when establishing or enhancing processes for decision making, and when developing or implementing protection strategies. The focus is on nuclear or radiological emergency situations leading to complex preparedness and response conditions, involving multiple jurisdictions and significant international interfaces.

The report is aimed at national emergency management authorities, international organisations and those who are seeking to improve the effectiveness of emergency management. Its goal is to provide insights into decision-making processes within existing emergency planning arrangements. It also highlights common areas of good practice in decision making. Specific areas for improvement, identified during the INEX-3 consequence management exercise, are included, particularly in support of decision making for countermeasures for consequence management and the transition to recovery.

What contribution can nuclear energy make to improve the security of energy supply? This study, which examines a selection of OECD member countries, qualitatively and quantitatively validates the often intuitive assumption that, as a largely domestic source of electricity with stable costs and no greenhouse gas emissions during production, nuclear energy can make a positive contribution. Following an analysis of the meaning and context of security of supply, the study uses transparent and policy-relevant indicators to show that, together with improvements in energy efficiency, nuclear energy has indeed contributed significantly to enhanced energy supply security in OECD countries over the past 40 years.

The reliable supply of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) and its decay product, technetium-99m (Tc-99m), is a vital component of modern medical diagnostic practices. Disruptions in the supply chain of these radioisotopes – which cannot be effectively stored – can suspend important medical testing services. Unfortunately, supply reliability has declined over the past decade, due to unexpected or extended shutdowns at the few ageing, Mo-99 producing, research reactors and processing facilities. These shutdowns have created global supply shortages.

This study offers a unique analysis of the economic structure and present state of the Mo-99/Tc-99m supply chain. It finds that the shortages are a symptom of a longer-term problem linked to insufficient capital investment, which has been brought about by an economic structure that does not provide sufficient remuneration for producing Mo-99 or support for developing additional production and processing infrastructure. To assist governments and other decision makers in their efforts to ensure long-term, reliable supply of these important medical isotopes, the study presents options for creating a sustainable economic structure. The study will also enhance understanding amongst stakeholders of the costs of supplying Mo-99 and ultimately contribute to a better functioning market.

The reliable supply of molybdenum-99 (Mo-99) and its decay product, technetium-99m (Tc-99m), is a vital component of modern medical diagnostic practices. Disruptions in the supply chain of these radioisotopes – which cannot be effectively stored – can suspend important medical testing services. Unfortunately, supply reliability has declined over the past decade, due to unexpected or extended shutdowns at the few ageing, Mo-99 producing, research reactors and processing facilities. These shutdowns have created global supply shortages.

The full study offers a unique analysis of the economic structure and present state of the Mo-99/Tc-99m supply chain. It finds that the shortages are a symptom of a longer-term problem linked to insufficient capital investment, which has been brought about by an economic structure that does not provide sufficient remuneration for producing Mo-99 or support for developing additional production and processing infrastructure. To assist governments and other decision makers in their efforts to ensure long-term, reliable supply of these important medical isotopes, the study presents options for creating a sustainable economic structure. The study will also enhance understanding amongst stakeholders of the costs of supplying Mo-99 and ultimately contribute to a better functioning market.

Currently, the format, content and practice of cost estimation vary considerably both within and between countries, which makes it very difficult to compare estimates, even for similar types of facilities. The reasons are largely due to different legal requirements in different countries and to historical custom and practice, leading to variations in basic assumptions such as the anticipated decommissioning strategy and end state of the site, and to different approaches to dealing with uncertainties. While attaining harmonisation across national approaches to cost estimation may be difficult to achieve, standardising the way decommissioning cost estimates are structured and reported will give greater transparency to the decommissioning process and will help build regulator and stakeholder confidence in the cost estimates and schedules.

This booklet highlights the findings of the NEA Decommissioning Cost Estimation Group (DCEG) which recently studied cost estimation practices in 12 countries.

As part of its activities, the Regulators’ Forum of the NEA Radioactive Waste Management Committee has been examining the regulatory criteria for the long-term performance of geological disposal. In this context, it organised a workshop entitled “Towards Transparent, Proportionate and Deliverable Regulation for Geological Disposal”, which served to verify current status and needs. Participants included regulators, implementers, policy makers, R&D specialists and academics. Themes addressed included duties to future generations, timescales for regulation, stepwise decision making, roles of optimisation and best available techniques (BAT), multiple lines of reasoning, safety and performance indicators, recognition of uncertainties and the importance of stakeholder interactions. The workshop highlighted the significant amount of work accomplished over the past decade, but also identified important differences between national regulations even if these are not in contradiction with international guidance. Also highlighted was the importance of R&D carried out on behalf of the regulator. In addition to the contributed papers, these proceedings trace the numerous discussions that formed an integral part of the workshop. They constitute an important and unique documentary basis for researchers and radioactive waste management specialists.

With several countries currently building nuclear power plants and planning the construction of more to meet long-term increases in electricity demand, uranium resources, production and demand remain topics of notable interest. In response to the projected growth in demand for uranium and declining inventories, the uranium industry – the first critical link in the fuel supply chain for nuclear reactors – is boosting production and developing plans for further increases in the near future. Strong market conditions will, however, be necessary to trigger the investments required to meet projected demand.

The “Red Book”, jointly prepared by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency, is a recognised world reference on uranium. It is based on information compiled in 40 countries, including those that are major producers and consumers of uranium. This 23rd edition provides a comprehensive review of world uranium supply and demand as of 1 January 2009, as well as data on global uranium exploration, resources, production and reactor-related requirements. It provides substantive new information from major uranium production centres around the world, as well as from countries developing production centres for the first time. Projections of nuclear generating capacity and reactor-related uranium requirements through 2035 are also featured, along with an analysis of long-term uranium supply and demand issues.

Recently developed best-estimate computer code systems for modelling 3-D coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics transients in nuclear reactors need to be validated against results from experiments and compared with each other to help understand how the different modelling methods adopted affect the accuracy of the simulation. This benchmark was set up for that purpose.

This report is one of a series covering benchmarks designed to test modelling methods for a range of transient scenarios in a VVER-1000 reactor. In this case, the transient is initiated by isolation of one steam generator causing asymmetric loop heat-up. The benchmark is based on experiments conducted at the Kozloduy nuclear power plant.

High-level political, governmental and regulatory decision makers, as well as representatives of economic and social groups and implementing organisations met in Berne, Switzerland to present and to reflect on their collective experience towards meeting the challenge of implementing national disposal projects for placing radioactive waste in deep geological formations. These proceedings include the papers presented at the conference as well as a summary which highlights the main lessons to be learnt and final recommendations to assist future developments in national radioactive waste management programmes seeking to meet both technical and social imperatives of modern society.

High-level political, governmental and regulatory decision makers, as well as representatives of economic and social groups and implementing organisations met in Berne, Switzerland to present and to reflect on their collective experience towards meeting the challenge of implementing national disposal projects for placing radioactive waste in deep geological formations. This summary highlights the main lessons to be learnt and final recommendations to assist future developments in national radioactive waste management programmes seeking to meet both technical and social imperatives of modern society.

A cornerstone of national decision making and societal acceptance of deep geological disposal of radioactive waste is confidence that such repositories can protect humans and the environment both now and in the future. The “safety case” is the synthesis of evidence, analyses and arguments that quantify and substantiate a claim that the repository will be safe after closure and beyond the time when active control of the facility is ensured. For deep geological disposal, studies of the geosphere form a principal component of the safety case. Geoscientific information is unique in that it can offer evidence and lines of reasoning that span geological timescales (millennia and even longer).

The NEA Approaches and Methods for Integrating Geological Information in the Safety Case (AMIGO) project addresses the collection and integration of geoscientific evidence, analyses and arguments that contribute to an understanding of long-term safety. The third and final AMIGO workshop on “Approaches and Challenges for the Use of Geological Information in the Safety Case” underscored that geoscientific information plays a fundamental role in safety assessments. It is also increasingly used in the wider context of the safety case to provide evidence and arguments for the intrinsically favourable properties of a site, including its long-term stability. No single geoscientific argument “proves” safety, but rather each supports some key element of the safety case and provides enhanced confidence in the safety case. The workshop also considered the links and feedback among the safety case; design, engineering and construction issues; and geoscientific investigations.

Nuclear power plant modifications may be needed for a number of different reasons. These include physical ageing of plant systems, structures and components; obsolescence in hardware and software; feedback from operating experience; and opportunities for improved plant safety, reliability or capability. However, experience has also shown that weaknesses in the design and/or implementation of modifications can present significant challenges to plant safety. They can also have a considerable impact on the commercial performance of the plant. It is therefore important that the plant modification process reflect a recognition of the potential impact of human errors and that it incorporate suitable measures to minimise the potential for such errors.

In this context, the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) and its Working Group on Human and Organisational Factors organised an international workshop in 2003 to discuss the role of human and organisational performance in the nuclear plant modification process. This technical opinion paper represents the consensus of specialists in human and organisational factors (HOF) in the NEA member countries on commendable practices and approaches to dealing with nuclear plant modifications. It considers factors that should be taken into account when developing a modification process and identifies some lessons learnt from application of the process. The paper should be of particular interest of nuclear safety regulators and nuclear power plant operators.

Errors during maintenance and periodic testing are significant contributors to plant events. These errors may not always be revealed by post-maintenance tests and may remain undetected for extended periods until the affected system is called upon to function. It is therefore important that the plant maintenance process take into account the potential impact of human and organisational errors, and that it incorporate suitable measures to minimise the potential for such errors.

The NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) and its Working Group on Human and Organisational Factors organised an international workshop to discuss the role of human and organisational performance on maintenance. This technical opinion paper represents the consensus of specialists on human and organisational factors in NEA member countries on commendable practices and approaches to dealing with nuclear power plant maintenance. It sets out a framework for including a systematic consideration of human and organisational factors in the plant maintenance process. The paper should be of particular interest to nuclear safety regulators and nuclear power plant operators.

It is a dynamic time for the nuclear power sector. Existing reactor control rooms are undergoing various forms of modernisation. New reactors are being built in many countries and advanced reactors are being designed through international co-operation to support power generation for decades to come. The new technologies and concepts that are being considered in this context could impact upon the roles of the plant operators and thus plant safety. It is therefore important that the potential implications – both positive and negative – are evaluated and understood.

Through this technical opinion paper, the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) has sought to identify a set of research topics that should be explored in order to enhance knowledge of the human and organisational factors concerned. Research to address the topics described in this paper will provide the technical basis to help ensure that the benefits of new technology are realised and that the potential negative effects are minimised.

This paper should be of particular interest to research organisations and other stakeholders (including regulatory agencies, international organisations and industry organisations) that could support this research and benefit from its results.

This volume is the eleventh in the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) “Chemical Thermodynamics” series. It is based on a critical review of the thermodynamic properties of thorium, its solid compounds and aqueous complexes, initiated as part of the NEA Thermochemical Database Project Phase III (TDB III). The database system developed at the OECD/NEA Data Bank ensures consistency not only within the recommended data sets of thorium, but also amongst all the data sets published in the series. This volume will be of particular interest to scientists carrying out performance assessments of deep geological disposal sites for radioactive waste.

A key challenge in the development of safety cases for the deep geological disposal of radioactive waste is handling the long time frame over which the radioactive waste remains hazardous. The intrinsic hazard of the waste decreases with time, but some hazard remains for extremely long periods. Safety cases for geological disposal typically address performance and protection for thousands to millions of years into the future. Over such periods, a wide range of events and processes operating over many different timescales may impact on a repository and its environment. Uncertainties in the predictability of such factors increase with time, making it increasingly difficult to provide definite assurances of a repository's performance and the protection it may provide over longer timescales. Timescales, the level of protection and the assurance of safety are all linked.

Approaches to handling timescales for the geological disposal of radioactive waste are influenced by ethical principles, the evolution of the hazard over time, uncertainties in the evolution of the disposal system (and how these uncertainties themselves evolve) and the stability and predictability of the geological environment. Conversely, the approach to handling timescales can affect aspects of repository planning and implementation including regulatory requirements, siting decisions, repository design, the development and presentation of safety cases and the planning of pre- and post-closure institutional controls such as monitoring requirements. This is an area still under discussion among NEA member countries. This report reviews the current status and ongoing discussions of this issue.

Considerable international experience gained over the last 20 years demonstrates that nuclear facilities can be safely dismantled and decommissioned once a decision is made to cease operations and permanently shut them down. This brochure looks at decommissioning across a spectrum of nuclear facilities and shows worldwide examples of sucessful projects.

This publication reports the conclusions from the work undertaken by Subgroup 23 of the NEA Working Party on International Nuclear Data Evaluation Co-operation (WPEC), whose mission was to produce an international library of neutron cross-section evaluations for the most important fission products.

These fission products are important in the operation of nuclear reactors because some of them contribute delayed neutrons that are useful for reactor control, whereas others have a very high neutron capture cross-section, thus inhibiting the nuclear reaction. The build-up of the fission product poisons determines the maximum duration a given fuel element can be kept in a reactor.

The evolution of the system of radiological protection is of great interest to governments and regulatory authorities, in particular in Asia. In this context, the Japanese government hosted a series of NEA conferences on this subject. The 4th Asian Regional Conference, held in Tokyo in December 2007, included key discussions of Japanese, Korean, Chinese and Russian views on the new International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) recommendations, and on their interpretation in the international Basic Safety Standards and national regulations. This report summarises the most significant aspects of these discussions, providing keen insight into governmental and regulatory approaches to radiological protection in Asia.

This report provides an overview of experimental facilities that can be used to carry out nuclear safety research for gas-cooled reactors and identifies priorities for organising international co-operative programmes at selected facilities. The information has been collected and analysed by a Task Group on Advanced Reactor Experimental Facilities (TAREF) as part of an ongoing initiative of the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) which aims to define and to implement a strategy for the efficient utilisation of facilities and resources for Generation IV reactor systems.

A common theme throughout the series of NEA regulatory guidance reports, or “green booklets”, is the premise that the fundamental objective of all nuclear safety regulatory bodies is to ensure that nuclear facilities are operated at all times and later decommissioned in an acceptably safe manner. In meeting this objective the regulator must keep in mind that it is the operator that has responsibility for safely operating a nuclear facility; the role of the regulator is to oversee the operator’s activities as related to assuming that responsibility.

For the first time, the full series of these reports have been brought together in one edition. As such, it is intended to serve as a knowledge management tool both for current regulators and the younger generation of nuclear experts entering the regulatory field. While the audience for this publication is primarily nuclear regulators, the information and ideas may also be of interest to nuclear operators, other nuclear industry organisations and the general public.

The renewed interest in nuclear energy – to a large extent stimulated by concerns about global climate change, high volatility of fossil fuel prices and security of energy supply – has also revived discussions on advanced reactor concepts with the potential to reduce significantly the long-term radioactivity of nuclear waste. One of these concepts is an accelerator-driven system (ADS) which combines a particle accelerator with a subcritical reactor core. The Belgian research centre SCK•CEN at Mol has launched a project aiming to construct an ADS consisting of a high energy proton, linear accelerator combined with a lead-bismuth-cooled, subcritical reactor. The project is called MYRRHA (Multi-purpose Hybrid Research Reactor for High-tech Applications).

The Belgian government asked the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) to organise an international peer review of the MYRRHA project to provide an independent evaluation as part of the decision-making process. This report presents the findings from the review, which was conducted by a team of seven high-level experts from seven countries, assisted by the NEA Secretariat.

The NEA Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety established an Expert Group on Criticality Excursion Analysis in 2001 to explore the performance of various transient codes to evaluate criticality accidents in a fissile solution. Inter-code comparison exercises among four transient codes (AGNES, CRITEX, INCTAC and TRACE) have been carried out with typical transient experiments using uranyl nitrate fuel solution.

Two sets of benchmarks were carried out based on experimental programmes performed in the TRACY reactor in Japan, and the SILENE reactor in France. TRACY and SILENE have the same geometrical features: an annular cylinder with a central void tube for a transient rod and similar operational modes for reactivity insertion. The experiments selected are representative benchmarks for low- and high-enriched uranyl nitrate solution, about 10 wt% for TRACY and 93 wt% for the SILENE core.

This report provides an analysis of the benchmark results obtained with four different codes. It will be of particular interest to criticality safety practitioners developing transient codes, notably since little experimental data is available and the existing transient codes are presently unavailable to the public.

A “safety case” is the synthesis of evidence, analyses and arguments that quantify and substantiate a claim that a geological repository for radioactive waste will be safe after closure and beyond the time when active control of the facility can be ensured. The NEA project on International Experiences in Safety Cases for Geological Repositories (INTESC) analysed existing safety cases, and their elements, to provide an overview of progress during the last decade, to identify key concepts and to give insight into regulatory expectations on the contents and review of safety cases. This report documents the outcomes of the INTESC project. It takes account of the responses to a detailed survey of NEA member countries as well as the results of a technical workshop.

The project has shown that the purpose and concept of a safety case are generally understood, accepted and adopted by radioactive waste management programmes worldwide. Programmes are preparing safety cases in line with most of the elements suggested by the NEA, although there are some differences in interpretation and presentation. Some important trends are emerging, such as the use of safety functions and the role of a geosynthesis. Further development of some aspects and tools, such as quality assurance programmes and requirements management systems, can be expected as safety cases are further refined to support programmes moving towards implementation of geological disposal.

The plutonium produced during the operation of commercial nuclear power plants or that has become available from the dismantlement of nuclear weapons needs to be properly managed. One important contribution to the management process consists in validating the calculation methods and nuclear data used for estimates concerning power systems burning mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel. Another important contribution is the improved modelling of MOX fuel behaviour in such systems.

Within the framework of the NEA Expert Group on Reactor-based Plutonium Disposition, a fuel modelling code benchmark test was carried out for MOX fuel, with irradiation data on the BD8 MOX rod of the PRIMO programme provided by SCK•CEN and Belgonucléaire. This report summarises the data provided and the fuel characteristics for the irradiation, and presents the calculation results provided by the contributors.

Most experts worldwide agree that disposal of spent nuclear fuel in appropriate formations deep underground provides a suitable option. Most public discussions about these underground repositories concentrate on the radiological hazard associated with the potential leak of actinides to the biosphere. However, the radiotoxicity of the fission products dominates the total radiotoxicity of the spent nuclear fuel during the first 100 years. Thereafter, their radiotoxicity diminishes and the long-term radiotoxicity becomes dominated by the actinides, mainly by the plutonium and americium isotopes.

The aim of the international workshop on Mobile Fission and Activation Products in Nuclear Waste Disposal, MOFAP07, was to review and to identify the needs for further studies on the transport and chemical behaviour of fission products in the geosphere for the safety assessment of radioactive waste repositories. These proceedings contain 22 peer-reviewed papers from the workshop, which should be of particular interest to professionals in the radioactive waste management field.

Disposal of high-level radioactive waste and spent nuclear fuel in engineered facilities, or repositories, located deep underground in suitable geological formations is being developed worldwide as the reference solution to protect humans and the environment both now and in the future. An important aspect of assessing the long-term safety of deep geological disposal is developing a comprehensive understanding of the geological environment in order to define the initial conditions for the disposal system as well as to provide a sound scientific basis for projecting its future evolution. The transport pathways and mechanisms by which contaminants could migrate in the surrounding host rock are key elements in any safety case. Relevant experiments in laboratories or underground test facilities can provide important information, but the challenge remains in being able to extrapolate the results to the spatial and temporal scales required for performance assessment, which are typically tens to hundreds of metres and from thousands to beyond a million years into the future. Profiles of natural tracers dissolved in pore water of argillaceous rock formations can be considered as large-scale and long-term natural experiments which enable the transport properties to be characterised.

The CLAYTRAC Project on Natural Tracer Profiles Across Argillaceous Formations was established by the NEA Clay Club to evaluate the relevance of natural tracer data in understanding past geological evolution and in confirming dominant transport processes. Data were analysed for nine sites to support scientific understanding and development of geological disposal. The outcomes of the project show that, for the sites and clay-rich formations that were studied, there is strong evidence that solute transport is controlled mainly by diffusion. The results can improve site understanding and performance assessment in the context of deep geological disposal and have the potential to be applied to other sites and contexts.

This new edition of Nuclear Energy Data, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s annual compilation of essential statistics on nuclear energy in OECD countries, provides information on plans for new nuclear construction, nuclear fuel cycle developments and projections of installed nuclear capacity to 2035 in OECD member countries. This comprehensive overview of the current situation and expected trends in various sectors of the nuclear fuel cycle provides authoritative information for policy makers, experts and academics working in the nuclear energy field.

Considerable experimental and analytical work has been performed in recent years which has led to a broader and deeper understanding of phenomena related to loss-of-coolant accidents (LOCAs). Further, new cladding alloys have been produced, which might behave differently than the previously used Zircaloy-4, both under normal operating conditions and during transients. Compared with 20 years ago, fuel burn-up has been significantly increased. These and other factors have led the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) and its Working Group on Fuel Safety to produce this state-of-the-art report. The report should be of particular interest to nuclear safety regulators, nuclear power plant operators and nuclear fuel researchers.

Regional strategies can provide a useful framework for implementing innovative nuclear fuel cycles. The appropriate sharing of efforts and facilities among different countries is necessary in today’s context, as is taking into account proliferation concerns and resource optimisation. The preliminary studies examined in this report show that the expected benefits deriving from partitioning and transmutation (P&T), notably the reduction of radiotoxicity and heat load in a shared repository, can bring advantages to all countries of the region concerned, even when different nuclear energy policies are pursued. The studies also demonstrate that regional strategies tend to favour a nuclear “renaissance” in some countries.

A regional approach is proposed in order to implement the innovative fuel cycles associated with partitioning and transmutation in Europe. The impact of different deployment strategies and policies in various countries is addressed. Regional facilities’ characteristics and potential deployment schedules are also discussed. Further studies should be undertaken to investigate practical issues (fuel transport in particular) and institutional issues which will, without doubt, be very challenging.

Future nuclear fuel cycles could effectively address radioactive waste issues with the implementation of partitioning and transmutation (P&T). Previous studies have defined the infrastructure requirements for several key technical approaches. While these studies have proven extremely valuable, several countries have also recognised the complex, dynamic nature of the infrastructure problem: severe new issues arise when attempting to transit from current open or partially closed cycles to a final equilibrium or burn-down mode. While the issues are country-specific when addressed in detail, it is believed that there exists a series of generic issues related only to the current situation and to the desired end point.

These issues are critical to implementing a sustainable nuclear energy infrastructure. The present report focuses on the definition of key issues, the assessment of technologies and national scenario assessments.

Considered to be the standard reference work for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law, the Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication providing its subscribers with up-to-date information on all major developments falling within the domain of nuclear law. Published twice a year in both English and French, it covers legislative developments in almost 60 countries around the world as well as reporting on relevant jurisprudence and administrative decisions, international agreements and regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue address “The Review Conference Mechanism in Nuclear Law: Issues and Opportunities”, “National Implementation and Enforcement of Nuclear-Weapon-Free Zone Treaties” and “The Decommissioning of Asse II – Burden of the Past in the Federal Republic of Germany".

Considered to be the standard reference work for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law, the Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication providing its subscribers with up-to-date information on all major developments falling within the domain of nuclear law. Published twice a year in both English and French, it covers legislative developments in almost 60 countries around the world as well as reporting on relevant jurisprudence and administrative decisions, international agreements and regulatory activities of international organisations.

Feature articles in this issue include “Nuclear New Build – New Nuclear Law?”, “Directive Establishing a Community Framework for the Nuclear Safety of Nuclear Installations” and the “Harmonisation of Nuclear Liability in the European Union”.

The Information System on Occupational Exposure (ISOE) was created by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency in 1992 to promote and co-ordinate international co-operative undertakings in the area of worker protection at nuclear power plants. ISOE provides experts in occupational radiological protection with a forum for communication and exchange of experience.

The programme includes 71 participating utilities in 29 countries (334 operating units and 45 shutdown units), as well as the regulatory authorities of 25 countries. The ISOE database, annual symposia and ISOE Network website facilitate the exchange of operational experience and lessons learnt among participants.

The Seventeenth Annual Report of the ISOE Programme summarises occupational exposure data trends and ISOE achievements made during 2007. Principal developments in ISOE participating countries are also described.

ISOE is jointly sponsored by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Radiation is used in many applications of modern technology. However, its proper handling requires competent knowledge of the basic physical laws governing its interaction with matter. To ensure its safe use, appropriate tools for predicting radiation fields and doses, and subsequently establishing pertinent regulations, are required.

One area of radiation physics that has received much attention concerns electron-photon transport in matter. PENELOPE is a modern, general-purpose Monte Carlo tool for simulating the transport of electrons and photons, which is applicable for arbitrary materials and in a wide energy range. PENELOPE provides quantitative guidance for many practical situations and techniques, including electron and X-ray spectroscopies, electron microscopy and microanalysis, biophysics, dosimetry, medical diagnostics and radiotherapy, and radiation damage and shielding.

These proceedings contain the extensively revised teaching notes of the latest workshop/training course on PENELOPE (version 2008), along with a detailed description of the improved physics models, numerical algorithms and structure of the code system.

In November 2006, Hungary hosted the 6th National Workshop and Community Visit of the NEA Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC). Participants included institutional authorities, local residents and stakeholders, 11 mayors and more than 30 FSC delegates from 12 countries. The workshop focused on those factors that contribute either to the success or failure of the siting process for a radioactive waste repository. Experience gained in Hungary over the past two decades provided the context for the discussions. The workshop highlighted the role and modes of operation of local public oversight and information associations, which proved to be instrumental in reaching an agreement between the implementer and the local communities. The workshop included a visit to the community of Bátaapáti and the ongoing project site for an underground repository for short-lived, low- and intermediate-level radioactive waste (LILW).

Experimental facilities are essential research tools both for the development of nuclear science and technology and for testing systems and materials which are currently being used or will be used in the future. As a result of economic pressures and the closure of older facilities, there are concerns that the ability to undertake the research necessary to maintain and to develop nuclear science and technology may be in jeopardy.

An NEA expert group with representation from ten member countries, the International Atomic Energy Agency and the European Commission has reviewed the status of those research and test facilities of interest to the NEA Nuclear Science Committee. They include facilities relating to nuclear data measurement, reactor development, neutron scattering, neutron radiography, accelerator-driven systems, transmutation, nuclear fuel, materials, safety, radiochemistry, partitioning and nuclear process heat for hydrogen production.

This report contains the expert group’s detailed assessment of the current status of these nuclear research facilities and makes recommendations on how future developments in the field can be secured through the provision of high-quality, modern facilities. It also describes the online database which has been established by the expert group which includes more than 700 facilities.

Geological settings selected as potential host formations for the deep geological disposal of radioactive waste are chosen for, among other assets, their long-term stability and buffering capacity against disruptive or destabilising events and processes. The NEA Integration Group for the Safety Case organised a workshop on geosphere stability to develop a better understanding of the scientific evidence and arguments that contribute to confidence in the geological stability for deep geological disposal.

These proceedings present the outcomes of a geosphere stability workshop, held in November 2007, that focused on crystalline and other types of hard, fractured rocks. The workshop underscored the fact that many such rocks are intrinsically stable environments that evolve extremely slowly and provide good buffering against external events and processes. There is a good understanding of the processes and events that can affect crystalline rocks and, although there is less confidence in predicting exactly when and where such events will occur and the volume of rock that will be affected, the extent of the impacts on a geological repository can be confidently addressed using bounding approaches supported by geological information from similar sites around the world.

The renewed interest in nuclear energy triggered by concerns about global climate change and security of supply, which could lead to substantial growth in nuclear electricity generation, enhances the attractiveness of fast neutron reactors with closed fuel cycles. Moving from the current fleet of thermal neutron reactors to fast neutron systems will require many decades and extensive RD&D efforts. This book identifies and analyses key strategic and policy issues raised by such a transition, aiming at providing guidance to decision makers on the best approaches for implementing transition scenarios.

The topics covered in this book will be of interest to government and nuclear industry policy makers as well as to specialists working on nuclear energy system analyses and advanced fuel cycle issues.

The NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) celebrated its 50th anniversary in May 2007. Taking advantage of its half century of experience, the Committee took this occasion to look forward towards the next 50 years in order to identify the most significant emerging challenges to radiological protection policy, regulation and application. This report summarises the presentations and discussions of the high-level regulators and international radiological protection organisations’ leaders who attended, providing their views on how the radiological protection community can best move forward together to address emerging challenges.

Many countries have recognised that greater use of nuclear power could play a valuable role in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. However, given the high capital cost and complexity of nuclear power plants, financing their construction often remains a challenge. This is especially true where such financing is left to the private sector in the context of competitive electricity markets.

This study examines the financial risks involved in investing in a new nuclear power plant, how these can be mitigated, and how projects can be structured so that residual risks are taken by those best able to manage them. Given that expansion of nuclear power programmes will require strong and sustained government support, the study highlights the role of governments in facilitating and encouraging investment in new nuclear generating capacity.

The JEFF-3.1.1 library is an updated version of the JEFF-3.1 Joint Evaluated File for Fission and Fusion. It consists of sets of evaluated nuclear data for reactor applications. Reliable data of this sort are necessary to improve the safety and economy of existing installations, as well as for the design and efficient operation of advanced nuclear reactors. The improvements in this latest version of the JEFF-3.1.1 library are particularly noteworthy as regards light water reactor applications and the associated fuel cycle.

The present report provides detailed information on the analysis and incremental validation process employed with regard to the JEF-2.2 library, which has provided the basis for the JEFF-3.1.1 library.

The Joint Evaluated Fission and Fusion (JEFF) Project is a collaborative effort among NEA Data Bank member countries to develop a reference nuclear data library for use in different energy applications. Radioactive decay data forms an integral part of the nuclear data requirements for nuclear applications. In 2005, a completely revised library, JEFF-3.1, was made available. The updated JEFF-3.1.1 Radioactive Decay Data and Fission Yields Sub-libraries were released in 2007.

This report describes the development, contents and initial validation of the JEFF-3.1 Radioactive Decay Data and Fission Yields Sub-libraries, including the 2007 update, JEFF-3.1.1, of these sub-libraries.

Since the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) initiated a dialogue in 1999 on the evolution of the system of radiological protection, the NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) has actively engaged in providing the ICRP with input and views. The Committee’s work on this subject has included eight expert group reports, seven international conferences, and four detailed review and comment assessments of draft ICRP recommendations. This report presents a chronological summary of the issues, views and concerns raised by the CRPPH as the ICRP issued various draft versions of its new recommendations (ICRP Publication 103, published in December 2007), and of the response by the ICRP as seen in its subsequent draft recommendations. The interest of this summary report is that it will not only assist readers in understanding the main themes and concepts of the new ICRP recommendations, but also why and how the changes from the previous ICRP Publication 60 recommendations came about.

Since 1992, the Information System on Occupational Exposure (ISOE) has provided a forum for radiological protection professionals from nuclear power utilities and national regulatory authorities worldwide to discuss, promote and co-ordinate international co-operative undertakings for the radiological protection of workers at nuclear power plants. The ISOE objective is to improve occupational exposure management at nuclear power plants by exchanging relevant information, data and experience on methods to optimise occupational radiological protection.

This report on work management provides practical guidance on the application of work management principles as a contribution to the optimisation of occupational radiological protection. It recognises that while work management is no longer a new concept, continued efforts are needed to ensure that good performance, outcomes and trends are maintained in the face of current and future challenges. The focus of this report is therefore on presenting the key aspects of work management that should be considered by management and workers to save time, doses and money, supported by updated practical examples from within the ISOE community.

ISOE is jointly sponsored by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA).

Since its inception the NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) has been involved in the assessment and implementation of the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP). The development of new general ICRP recommendations, to replace those of the 1990 ICRP Publication 60, was thus of great interest to the NEA and its member countries. As a result, the NEA initiated a process of interaction and dialogue with the ICRP to ensure that the views and concerns of NEA member countries could be voiced and appropriately addressed in the new ICRP recommendations. The new ICRP recommendations were approved by the ICRP Main Commission in March 2007, by which point the NEA had sponsored 7 international conferences and produced 13 publications on the subject.

This report is the summary of the three international dialogue conferences (held in Tokyo, 5-6 July 2006, Washington, DC, 28-29 August 2006, and Prague, 24-25 October 2006) that were organised to provide the ICRP with feedback regarding the June 2006 draft of its new recommendations. It includes a presentation of the key points of the draft recommendations, a summary of the suggestions made during the three conferences, and an assessment of the significant evolution that has been seen in the ICRP’s presentation of its draft recommendations over the course of the conference series.
French blurb

Preservation of know-how in the nuclear field is promoted through the activities of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency Data Bank. One area of importance concerns methods for solving radiation transport problems, especially with regard to neutrons. This handbook (in the form of a case study), prepared by Barry D. Ganapol, is the result of such an initiative. It is a compilation of solutions to the transport equation for which analytical representations can be found. It is designed for educational use in courses on analytical transport methods and numerical methods with application to reactor physics. In addition, it contains elements for the continuous improvement of transport methods and for computer code verification. The areas of neutron slowing down, thermalization and one-, two- and three-dimensional neutron transport theory are covered. A series of training courses, based on this compilation of solutions has recently begun.

The NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) has recently completed a study on the availability and utilisation of facilities supporting safety studies for current and advanced nuclear power reactors. The study showed that significant steps had been undertaken in the past several years in support of safety test facilities, mainly by conducting multinational joint projects centered on the capability of unique test facilities worldwide.

Given the positive experience of the safety research projects, it has been recommended that efforts be made to prioritise technical issues associated with advanced (Generation IV) reactor designs and to develop options on how to efficiently obtain the necessary data through internationally co-ordinated research, preparing a gradual extension of safety research beyond the needs set by currently operating reactors.

This statement constitutes a reference for future CSNI activities and for safety authorities, R&D centres and industry for internationally co-ordinated research initiatives in the nuclear safety research area.

This publication reports the conclusions from the work undertaken by Subgroup 26 of the NEA Working Party on International Nuclear Data Evaluation Co-operation (WPEC), which focused on the development of a systematic approach to define data needs for advanced reactor systems and to make a comprehensive study of such needs for Generation IV (Gen-IV) reactors. A comprehensive sensitivity and uncertainty study has been performed to evaluate the impact of neutron cross-section uncertainty on the most significant integral parameters related to the core and fuel cycle of a wide range of innovative systems. A compilation of preliminary “Design Target Accuracies” has been put together and a target accuracy assessment has been performed to provide an indicative quantitative evaluation of nuclear data improvement requirements by isotope, nuclear reaction and energy range, in order to meet the design target accuracies, as compiled in the present study. First priorities were formulated on the basis of common needs for fast reactors and, separately, thermal systems.

Nuclear power plants require a wide variety of specialised equipment, materials and services for their construction, operation and fuelling. There has been much consolidation and retrenchment in the nuclear industry since the 1980s, with the emergence of some large global nuclear companies. Electricity market liberalisation in many OECD countries has meanwhile placed nuclear plant operators under increased competitive pressure.

These structural changes in both the producer and consumer sides of the nuclear industry have had implications for the level of competition in the nuclear engineering and fuel cycle markets. With renewed expansion of nuclear power now anticipated, this study examines competition in the major nuclear industry sectors at present, and how this may change with a significant upturn in demand.

The NEA Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC) has underscored the environmental and ethical basis for geological disposal as well as its technical feasibility in a number of previous collective statements. In the intervening period there have been advances and evolving views regarding the appropriate methodologies, policies, and decision-making processes. In addition much further practical experience has accumulated regarding the development of geological repositories. The RWMC expresses herewith, in a concise form, its collective views on why geological disposal remains an appropriate waste management choice for the disposal of the most hazardous and long-lived radioactive wastes, on the current status of geological disposal, on challenges and opportunities for implementation, and expectations for further developments.

This new edition of Nuclear Energy Data, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s annual compilation of essential statistics on nuclear energy in OECD countries, provides information on the latest plans for new nuclear construction, nuclear fuel cycle developments and projections of installed nuclear capacity to 2030 in member countries. This comprehensive overview of the current situation and expected trends in various sectors of the nuclear fuel cycle is an authoritative reference for policy makers, experts and academics working in the nuclear energy field.

This Nuclear Energy Outlook (NEO) is the first of its kind and responds to the renewed interest in nuclear energy by many OECD member countries. World energy demand continues to grow unabated and is leading to very serious concerns about security of supply, soaring energy prices and climate change stemming from fossil fuel consumption. Nuclear energy is being increasingly seen as having a role to play in addressing these concerns.

This Outlook uses the most current data and statistics available and provides projections up to 2050 to consider growth scenarios and potential implications on the future use of nuclear energy. It also offers unique analyses and recommendations on the possible challenges that lie ahead.

ARTICLES
-Looking Backward, Moving Forward: Licensing New Reactors in the United States, by Stephen G. Burns
-The EU and Non-Proliferation: Need for a Quantum Leap?, by Roland Kobia
-Environmental Law Developments in Nuclear Energy, by Stanley David Berger
-Perspective on the Pros and Cons of a Pooling-Type Approach to Nuclear Third Party Liability, by Simon Carroll

Considered to be the standard reference work for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law, the Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication providing its subscribers with up-to-date information on all major developments falling within the domain of nuclear law. Published twice a year in both English and French, it covers legislative developments in almost 60 countries around the world as well as reporting on relevant jurisprudence and administrative decisions, international agreements and regulatory activities of international organisations.

The Information System on Occupational Exposure (ISOE) was created by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency in 1992 to promote and co-ordinate international co-operative undertakings in the area of worker protection at nuclear power plants. ISOE provides experts in occupational radiological protection with a forum for communication and exchange of experience. A total of 71 utilities in 29 countries participate in the programme as well as the regulatory authorities of 25 countries. The ISOE databases enable the analysis of occupational exposure data from 401 operating commercial nuclear power plants (representing about 91% of the world's total operating commercial reactors), as well as 80 units undergoing decommissioning.

The Sixteenth Annual Report of the ISOE Programme summarises achievements made during 2006 and compares annual occupational exposure data. Principal developments in ISOE participating countries are also described.

The removal of fuel from a permanently shutdown nuclear facility eliminates the major source of radiological hazard, a nuclear criticality. Combined with the cessation of operations at high temperatures and pressures, the risk to public health and to the environment is thereby very significantly reduced. The process of decommissioning does however necessitate processes involving both conventional and radiological hazards such as the cutting and dismantling of structures, plant and equipment and the use of explosive cutting techniques. Some radiological hazards remain because of the possibility of coming into contact with radioactively contaminated or activated material.

This report considers how regulatory arrangements are being adapted to the continuously changing environment, and associated risk levels in a nuclear facility that is being decommissioned. It uses examples of current practices in several countries with large decommissioning programmes to illustrate emerging regulatory trends.

Regulating the long-term safety of geological disposal of radioactive waste is a key part of making progress on the radioactive waste management issue. A survey of member countries has shown that differences exist both in the protection criteria being applied and in the methods for demonstrating compliance, reflecting historical and cultural differences between countries which in turn result in a diversity of decision-making approaches and frameworks. At the same time, however, these differences in criteria are unlikely to result in significant differences in long-term protection, as all the standards being proposed are well below levels at which actual effects of radiological exposure can be observed and a range of complementary requirements is foreseen.

In order to enable experts from a wide range of backgrounds to debate the various aspects of these findings, the NEA organised an international workshop in November 2006 in Paris, France. Discussions focused on diversity in regulatory processes; the basis and tools for assuring long-term protection; ethical responsibilities of one generation to later generations and how these can be discharged; and adapting regulatory processes to the long time frames involved in implementing geological disposal. These proceedings include a summary of the viewpoints expressed as well as the 22 papers presented at the workshop.

The radiological concept of clearance can be defined as the release of radioactive materials or buildings from any further regulatory control applied for radiological protection purposes by the competent body. It is generally based on the assumption that, following clearance, any potential radiological exposure of the public will be trivial.

Clearance is now a mature concept being used for the management of large amounts of radioactive materials (including metals, building rubble, cables and plastics) and disused buildings associated with a controlled nuclear activity. There are, however, differences in the ways in which clearance is dealt with in the regulatory frameworks of various countries and the ways in which clearance has been implemented in diverse decommissioning projects.

This report provides up-to-date information on an array of national approaches to clearance. It should be of particular help to those planning the implementation of a clearance procedure, such as that for decommissioning a nuclear facility.

The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) hosted an international symposium on “Safety Cases for the Deep Disposal of Radioactive Waste: Where Do We Stand?” in January 2007. The NEA has spearheaded important developments in defining, and in developing methodologies to support, demonstrations of safety for deep disposal, including a similar symposium nearly two decades ago that provided the basis for a 1991 NEA collective opinion that the technical basis and methods exist for undertaking safety assessment of deep geological disposal. The 2007 symposium, co-sponsored by the European Commission and the International Atomic Energy Agency, provided the opportunity to review progress and to identify emerging trends and challenges. It brought together experts in the field of radioactive waste disposal from waste management organisations, regulatory agencies, scientific support organisations, international agencies, private sector consultants, and public interest groups both within and beyond NEA member countries.

The symposium showed that safety cases for radioactive waste disposal have evolved to become important tools both to assess safety and to aid in decision making. There is a good, shared understanding of what a safety case is and what comprises its main components. Importantly, the concept of a safety case today encompasses not only quantitative assessments of potential repository performance but also includes additional (and often more qualitative) lines of evidence and arguments that can contribute to confidence in safety. There has been significant evolution in terms of the analytical tools, lines of evidence, range of performance indicators and communication of the safety case. The value of international co-operation and dialogue in developing the concept and methodology of safety cases was underscored. These proceedings describe the discussions and conclusions of the symposium, and provide copies of the technical papers presented.

Structural materials research is a field of growing relevance in the nuclear sector, especially for the different innovative reactor systems being developed within the Generation IV International Forum (GIF), for critical and subcritical transmutation systems, and of interest to the Global Nuclear Energy Partnership (GNEP). Under the auspices of the NEA Nuclear Science Committee (NSC) the Workshop on Structural Materials for Innovative Nuclear Systems (SMINS) was organised in collaboration with the Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe in Germany. The objectives of the workshop were to exchange information on structural materials research issues and to discuss ongoing programmes, both experimental and in the field of advanced modelling. These proceedings include the papers and the poster session materials presented at the workshop, representing the international state of the art in this domain.

The fundamental objective of all nuclear safety regulatory bodies is to ensure that nuclear facilities are operated, as well as decommissioned, in an acceptably safe manner. However, in meeting this objective the regulator must keep in mind that it is the operator that has responsibility for safely operating a nuclear facility; the role of the regulator is to oversee the operator’s activities as related to assuming that responsibility.

There are currently many sources of information available to the regulator pertaining to safety at any given nuclear facility, such as inspection reports, operating experience reports, research results, periodic safety reviews, probabilistic safety analysis (PSA) results, insights from IAEA reviews and other similar information. A major challenge for the regulator is to systematically collect and analyse this information in order to arrive at an integrated assessment of the level of safety of the particular facility and then to make a judgement about its acceptability. In order to assist member countries in addressing this challenging question, the Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has sponsored this report.

The primary focus of the report is on how the regulatory body can systematically collect and make an integrated analysis of all the relevant safety information available to it and arrive at a sound judgement on the acceptability of the level of safety of the facilities that it regulates. It therefore follows that the target audience for this report is primarily nuclear regulators, although the information and ideas may also be of interest to nuclear operators, other nuclear industry organisations and segments of civil society.

This workshop enabled the exchange of experience among regulators, research managers and industry on the needs, priorities and foreseeable trends for nuclear safety research in a regulatory context. It also addressed the means that are or can be used for effectively performing such research.

The presentations highlighted priority safety issues, at present and in the near term, for operating plants and new reactors. During the workshop, participants discussed the challenges that the nuclear community will face in the long term for performing safety evaluations of advanced reactor designs, and explored various avenues for organising the research and infrastructure that will be needed.

These proceedings will be of particular interest to nuclear specialists and research managers wishing to obtain an international perspective of current and foreseeable needs in regulatory-driven nuclear safety research.

This study identifies key factors influencing the timing of high-level waste (HLW) disposal and examines how social acceptability, technical soundness, environmental responsibility and economic feasibility impact on national strategies for HLW management and disposal. Based on case study analyses, it also presents the strategic approaches adopted in a number of national policies to address public concerns and civil society requirements regarding long-term stewardship of high-level radioactive waste.

The findings and conclusions of the study confirm the importance of informing all stakeholders and involving them in the decision-making process in order to implement HLW disposal strategies successfully. This study will be of considerable interest to nuclear energy policy makers and analysts as well as to experts in the area of radioactive waste management and disposal.

With several countries building nuclear power plants and many more considering the use of nuclear power to produce electricity in order to meet rising demand, the uranium industry has become the focus of considerable attention. In response to rising demand and declining inventories, uranium prices have increased dramatically in recent years. As a result, the uranium industry is undergoing a significant revival, bringing to an end a period of over 20 years of underinvestment.

The “Red Book”, jointly prepared by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the International Atomic Energy Agency, is a recognised world reference on uranium. It is based on official information received from 40 countries. This 22nd edition provides a comprehensive review of world uranium supply and demand as of 1st January 2007, as well as data on global uranium exploration, resources, production and reactor-related requirements. It provides substantive new information from major uranium production centres in Africa, Australia, Central Asia, Eastern Europe and North America. Projections of nuclear generating capacity and reactor-related uranium requirements through 2030 are also featured, along with an analysis of long-term uranium supply and demand issues.

The accelerator-driven system (ADS) is one of the viable concepts for transmuting the long-lived isotopes contained in spent nuclear fuel and for this reason has been receiving considerable interest. In turn, attention must be given to the high power proton accelerators whose reliability and performance are key to the functioning of the ADS.

It is in this context that the NEA organised the fifth workshop on the Utilisation and Reliability of High Power Proton Accelerators (HPPA5) which was held on 6-9 May 2007 in Mol, Belgium. The workshop included a special session on the MEGAPIE programme as well as five technical sessions: accelerator programmes and applications; accelerator reliability; spallation target development and coolant technology; subcritical system design and ADS simulations; and ADS experiments and test facilities. These proceedings contain all the technical papers presented at the workshop and will be of particular interest to scientists working on ADS development.

Partitioning and transmutation (P&T) has the potential of significantly reducing the radiotoxicity of nuclear waste and thus minimising the amount of it that needs to be stored in deep geological repositories. In order to provide experts with a forum to present and discuss developments in the field of P&T, since 1990 the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has been organising biennial information exchange meetings on actinide and fission product partitioning and transmutation.

These proceedings contain all the technical papers and posters presented at the Ninth Information Exchange Meeting, which was held on 25-29 September 2006 in Nîmes, France. The meeting covered such issues as progress in fuels and targets, partitioning and waste forms, spallation targets, dedicated transmutation systems, coolants, and physics and nuclear data. In addition, the integration of P&T programmes within different fuel cycle strategies was discussed, as well as the potential transmutation of waste in Generation IV reactors. The implications for waste management strategies, in particular for geological disposal, were also explored. More than 100 papers were presented during the meeting.

This publication presents the conclusions of the work undertaken by Subgroup 25 of the NEA Working Party on International Evaluation Co-operation, which focused on the assessment and improvement of the evaluated decay data sub-libraries in order to obtain more accurate estimations of decay heat. Recommendations have been prepared for total absorption gamma-ray spectroscopy (TAGS) measurements of specific fission product nuclides to be undertaken in close collaboration with experimentalists in Subgroup 25.

On 5-7 September 2006, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency organised a workshop on Benchmarking of CFD Codes for Application to Nuclear Reactor Safety (CFD4NRS) in co-operation with the International Atomic Energy Agency. The workshop was hosted in Germany by the Gesellschaft für Anlagen und Reaktorsicherheit (GRS). The purpose of the workshop was to provide a forum for numerical analysts and experimentalists to exchange information on nuclear reactor safety activities relevant to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) validation, with the objective of providing input to create a practical, state-of-the-art, web-based assessment matrix on the use of CFD for nuclear reactor safety applications. These proceedings contain the 39 technical papers presented at the workshop, which was attended by 100 participants.

Since 1991, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has conducted a number of scientific studies to examine nuclear fuel burn-up issues as applied to criticality safety in the transportation, storage and treatment of spent fuel. They have covered a wide range of fuel types, including UOX and MOX fuels for PWR, BWR and VVER reactors.

The objective of the current study was to examine the axial burn-up profiles of PWR UO2 spent fuel assemblies and specifically the fuel assembly end effects and the axial fission density distributions. The study was based on the evaluation of a database of experimentally measured axial burn-up profiles of the Siemens Convoy fuel assemblies, irradiated in the German nuclear power plant Neckarwestheim II.

The report analyses and summarises the solutions to the specified benchmark exercises provided by ten contributors from seven countries. It shows that there is a significant correlation between the asymmetry of axial fuel assembly burn-up profiles and both the end effect and the axial fission density distribution. The results also illustrate the importance of using accurate axial fuel burn-up profiles when designing transport/storage fuel casks.

This technical opinion paper represents the consensus of risk analysts in NEA member countries on the current state of the art of level-2 probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) and its applications in accident management of nuclear power plants. Level-2 PSA models the phenomena that could occur following the onset of core damage that have the potential to challenge the containment integrity and lead to a release of radioactive material to the environment. The paper's objective is to present decision makers in the nuclear field with a clear technical opinion on the status as implemented in industrial PSAs.

The intended audience is primarily nuclear safety regulators, researchers and industry representatives dealing with safety management and severe accidents. Government authorities and nuclear power plant operators may also be interested in the paper.

This volume provides a state-of-the-art report on the modelling of aqueous-solid solution systems by the combined use of chemical thermodynamics and experimental and computational techniques. These systems are ubiquitous in nature and therefore intrinsic to the understanding and quantification of radionuclide containment and retardation processes present in geological repositories of radioactive waste. Representative cases for study have been chosen from the radioactive waste literature to illustrate the application of the various approaches.

This report has been prepared by a team of four leading experts in the field under the auspices of the OECD/NEA Thermochemical Database (TDB) Project. The team comprised Jordi Bruno (Enviros, Spain), Dirk Bosbach (FZK, Germany), Dmitrii Kulik (PSI, Switzerland) and Alexandra Navrotsky (UC Davis, USA).

In recent years the socio-political environment of radioactive waste management (RWM) has been changing in a significant way. Stakeholder dialogue has become a leading principle. How have RWM organisations adapted to this societal transition? How do they balance the requirement of openness and the increasing concerns over the security of facilities? Are there organisations that have successfully changed from a technical- to a customer-focused culture? What resistance was met? Which tools and instruments helped organisations evolve?

This report documents the changes observed by RWM managers and sets those changes in an organisational sciences framework. All those who are intent on learning about the changes that have taken place in the field of radioactive waste management, or whose own organisations in any sector must adapt to societal demand, will be interested by the experience and insight reported here.

The presence of several barriers serving complementary safety functions enhances confidence that radioactive waste placed in deep geological repositories will be adequately isolated and contained to protect human health and the environment. The barriers include the natural geological barrier and the engineered barrier system (EBS). The EBS itself may comprise a variety of sub-systems or components, such as the waste form, container, buffer, backfill, seals and plugs. Given the importance of this subject, the Integration Group for the Safety Case (IGSC) of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) sponsored a series of workshops with the European Commission to develop greater understanding of how to achieve the necessary integration for the successful design, testing, modelling and performance assessment of EBS for deep underground disposal of radioactive waste.

These proceedings present the main findings from, and the papers delivered at, the fourth NEA-EC workshop on EBS, which took place in Tokyo, Japan, in September 2006. This final workshop of the series focused on strategies and methods to demonstrate that EBS designs will fulfil the relevant requirements for long-term safety, engineering feasibility and quality assurance. The workshop highlighted that large-scale experiments have confirmed the feasibility of techniques for manufacturing and installing engineered components in disposal systems and have also provided valuable lessons to improve designs and refine practical aspects to construct and implement EBS.

In the deep disposal of radioactive waste, the presence of several barriers serving complementary safety functions enhances confidence that the waste will be isolated and contained to protect human health and the environment. The barriers include the natural geological barrier and the engineered barrier system (EBS). The EBS itself may comprise a variety of sub-systems or components, such as the waste form, container, buffer, backfill, seals and plugs. The Integration Group for the Safety Case (IGSC) of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) is co-sponsoring a series of workshops with the European Commission to develop greater understanding of how to achieve the necessary integration for the successful design, testing, modelling and performance assessment of engineered barrier systems (EBS) for deep underground disposal of radioactive waste.

These proceedings include the main findings and presented papers from the third NEA-EC workshop on engineered barrier systems, which focused on the role of EBS modelling in the safety case for deep disposal. Some national programmes are placing increased emphasis on EBS and, as implementation of underground repositories approaches, more realistic assessments of EBS performance are needed. The workshop examined the modelling tools currently available and identified complex areas of assessment in which further dialogue is needed.

This publication describes a study of international, European and national legislation which protect the environment from radiation. Countries covered include Australia, Canada, France, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States. The analysis of the legislation draws conclusions about how well the environment is protected from radiation, and identifies strengths and weaknesses of current approaches as well as trends in regulation. The book will be useful reading for regulators and policy makers in radiological protection, but also for those interested in environmental regulation more generally.

Uncertainty in relation to several severe accident phenomena plays a major role in probabilistic safety analyses involving beyond-design-basis accident scenarios for nuclear power plants. The technical papers presented herein will be valuable for nuclear safety analysts, nuclear power plant designers and R&D managers, especially with regard to unresolved severe accident issues or issues where risk uncertainty is high.

The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has actively participated in discussions with the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) regarding the development of new recommendations that will replace those in ICRP Publication 60, which has long served as the international standard in this field. Part of this development process has involved the organisation of seven international workshops, including the First and Second Asian Regional Conferences on the Evolution of the System of Radiological Protection which took place in Tokyo, Japan in October 2002 and July 2004. The Third Asian Regional Conference was held on 5-6 July 2006, also in Tokyo.

The main objective of these conferences was to ensure that the views and concerns of relevant Asian stakeholders, such as regulatory authorities, industry, professional societies and NGOs, could be expressed and discussed with the ICRP. The three conferences provided the ICRP with specific views on how new recommendations could best be developed to address regulatory and implementation needs in the Asian context. These proceedings summarise the results and key discussions of the Third Asian Regional Conference.

Since the beginning of the 1990s, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has offered its member countries a forum for improving efficiency and effectiveness in nuclear emergency management, focusing in particular on the international aspects of emergency preparedness and response. A central approach to this has been the preparation and conduct of the International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX) series.

The INEX 3 consequence management exercise series was developed by the NEA Working Party on Nuclear Emergency Matters in response to its members’ desire to better prepare for the longer-term response following a nuclear or radiological emergency. INEX 3 was designed and conducted to allow participants to investigate the national and international arrangements for responding to widespread radiological contamination of the environment and the consequence management issues likely to be raised in the medium to long term following such an event. The main areas addressed included agriculture and food countermeasures, decisions on countermeasures such as travel, trade or tourism, recovery management and public information. The exercise series, conducted in 2005-2006, was followed by an evaluation workshop aimed at allowing participants to share their national experiences with INEX 3, compare approaches, analyse the implications on decision making and identify key needs in longer-term consequence management.

This report summarises the development of the INEX 3 exercise, the major evaluation outcomes of the national exercises, and the key policy-level outcomes, recommendations and follow-up activities arising from the exercise and workshop.

On 21 March 1957, the Steering Committee for Nuclear Energy of the Organisation for European Economic Co-operation established the Working Party on Public Health and Safety. From this early date onwards, radiological protection formed a central part of the work of what was to become the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency.

Now, 50 years later, the Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) has commissioned this historical review of half a century of work and accomplishments. Over this period, the key topics in radiological protection have been identified, debated and addressed by the CRPPH. This report brings this history to life, presenting the major questions in the context of their time, and of the personalities who worked to address them. The developments and views of the past condition how we are able to assess and manage radiological risks today, as well as how we may adjust to challenges that will or could emerge in the coming years. This heritage is thus an important element for the CRPPH to consider as it looks forward to its next 50 years of accomplishments.

Any long-term radioactive waste management project is likely to last decades to centuries. It requires a physical site and will impact in a variety of ways on the surrounding community over that whole period. The societal durability of an agreed solution is essential to success. This report identifies a number of design elements (including functional, cultural and physical features) that favour a durable relationship between the facility and its host community by improving prospects for quality of life across generations.

As part of the development of advanced nuclear systems, including accelerator-driven systems (ADS) proposed for high-level radioactive waste transmutation and generation IV reactors, heavy liquid metals such as lead (Pb) or lead-bismuth eutectic (LBE) are under evaluation as reactor core coolant and ADS neutron target material. Heavy liquid metals are also being envisaged as target materials for high-power neutron spallation sources. The objective of this handbook is to collate and publish properties and experimental results on Pb and LBE in a consistent format in order to provide designers with a single source of qualified properties and data and to guide subsequent development efforts. The handbook covers liquid Pb and LBE properties, materials compatibility and testing issues, key aspects of the thermal-hydraulics and system technologies, existing test facilities, open issues and perspectives.

Innovation has been a driving force in the successful deployment of nuclear energy and remains essential today for its sustainable future. As nuclear energy is an attractive option for ensuring diversity and security of energy supply, as well as lower global climate change risks, the way to continue this innovation is a key issue for industry and interested governments. For greater innovation in the nuclear area to be realised, more in-depth discussions on ways and means for promoting nuclear innovation are crucial, and enhanced knowledge of nuclear innovation systems is required.

This report provides an overview of the state of the art in nuclear innovation systems, including their driving forces, main actors, institutional and legal frameworks, and infrastructure for knowledge and programme management. It also offers policy recommendations based on country reports and case studies supplied by participating member countries.

The long-term safety of deep disposal of radioactive waste will be strongly dependent on the performance of the geological setting. The geology fulfils important safety functions including isolating the waste from human contact or intrusion, providing a stable physical and chemical environment, insulating against external disturbances, and preventing or delaying the transport of radioactive materials away from the waste. Thus, a sound understanding of the geology's history and evolution is central in supporting assessments that examine the long-term performance and safety of deep disposal. Geological data can also play an important role in other related activities, such as site selection and repository design.

Through a series of technical workshops, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) project on Approaches and Methods for Integrating Geological Information in the Safety Case (AMIGO), is devoted to defining and improving the collection and use of geological evidence that contribute to the understanding of long-term safety for radioactive waste disposal. The second AMIGO workshop was organised in Canada in September 2005. It examined how geoscientific arguments and data are compiled and linked to create a unified description of the geological setting to support a safety case. It also examined practical aspects and limitations in collecting, linking, extrapolating and communicating such information. These proceedings present the outcomes of the workshop.

Interest in nuclear energy continues to grow in many countries as a means to ensure security of energy supply and to limit greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector. In this context, recyclable materials constitute an asset for broadening the resource base for nuclear fuel supply, especially in medium- and long-term perspectives.

This report provides an overview of recyclable fissile and fertile materials inventories which can be reused as nuclear fuel. It reviews the options available for managing those materials, through recycling and/or disposal. The potential energetic value of recyclable materials is assessed, taking into account the variability of retrievable energy contents of various materials according to technology and strategy choices made by the owners of the materials.

The analyses contained in this report will be of particular interest to energy policy makers and to nuclear fuel cycle experts.

The plutonium produced during the operation of commercial nuclear power plants or that has become available from the dismantlement of nuclear weapons needs to be properly managed. One important contribution to the management process consists in validating the calculation methods and nuclear data used for the prediction of power in systems burning mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel. Another important contribution is the improved modelling of MOX fuel behaviour in such systems.

Within the framework of the NEA Expert Group on Reactor-based Plutonium Disposition, a fuel modelling code benchmark test for MOX fuel was initiated, with in-pile irradiation data on two short MOX rods provided by the OECD/NEA Halden Reactor Project. This report summarises the in-pile data and fuel characteristics, and presents the calculation results provided by the contributors.

This new edition of Nuclear Energy Data, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency’s annual compilation of essential statistics on nuclear energy in OECD countries, offers projections lengthened to 2030 for the first time and information on the development of new centrifuge enrichment capacity in member countries. The compilation gives readers a comprehensive and easy-to-access overview of the current situation and expected trends in various sectors of the nuclear fuel cycle, providing authoritative information to policy makers, experts and academics working in the nuclear energy field.

ARTICLES
- The Universal Legal Framework Against Nuclear Terrorism, by Walter Gehr
- The Convention on Supplementary Compensation for Nuclear Damage: Catalyst for a Global Nuclear Liability Regime, by Ben McRae
- International Pooling of Operators’ Funds: An Option to Increase the Amount of Financial Security to Cover Nuclear Liability?, by Norbert Pelzer

ARTICLES
- Judicial Progress in Germany?s Nuclear Waste Disposal Policy, The Konrad Repository Decisions of 26 March 2007, by Gunther Kuhne
- Critical Reflections on the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, by Quentin Michel
- The ?Incentive? Concept as Developed in the Nuclear Safety Conventions and its Possible Extension to Other Sectors, by Tammy de Wright

STUDY
- The International System of Radiological Protection: Key Structures and Current Challenges, by Edward Nicholas Lazo

This report provides an overview of experimental facilities that can be used to address nuclear safety research issues in OECD member countries, and identifies priorities for organising international co-operative programmes centred on selected facilities. The information has been gathered and analysed by a Senior Group of Experts on Nuclear Safety Research, in the context of an ongoing initiative of the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) aimed at maintaining critical experimental infrastructure for nuclear safety studies in member countries.

The Information System on Occupational Exposure (ISOE) was created by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency in 1992 to promote and co-ordinate international co-operative undertakings in the area of worker protection at nuclear power plants. ISOE provides experts in occupational radiation protection with a forum for communication and exchange of experience. The ISOE databases enable the analysis of occupational exposure data from 480 commercial nuclear power plants participating in the programme (representing some 90% of the world's total operating commercial reactors).

The Fifteenth Annual Report of the ISOE Programme summarises achievements made during 2005 and compares annual occupational exposure data. Principal developments in ISOE participating countries are also described.

The NEA has studied multiple recycling issues associated with various reactor systems fuelled with mixed-oxide (MOX) and published a series of computational physics benchmarks. This has led to improvements in the nuclear data libraries and calculation methods. Several benchmarks were completed comparing those findings with data from experiments. Previous benchmarks have concentrated mainly on PWRs, BWRs, VVER-1000s and FRs.

The present report provides an evaluation and analysis of the reactor period measurements carried out in the CROCUS reactor of the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) for several different delayed super-critical conditions. Two types of reactivity changes were measured employing an appropriate stable period technique in each case. The first series of experiments involved increasing the water level above the critical level. The second series was carried out by inserting/removing one of the absorber rods into/out of the core. The report also provides a benchmark model and the results obtained with different computer codes.
The report will be of interest to reactor physicists and designers.

The NEA has studied multiple recycling issues associated with various reactor systems fuelled with mixed-oxide (MOX) and published a series of computational physics benchmarks. This has led to improvements in the nuclear data libraries and calculation methods. Several benchmarks were completed comparing those findings with data from experiments. Previous benchmarks have concentrated mainly on PWRs, BWRs, VVER-1000s and FRs. The present benchmark concerns a pebble bed modular reactor (PBMR) fuelled with reactor-grade plutonium.

Although the benchmark has been specifically designed to provide intercomparisons for plutonium and thorium fuels, phases of calculations for uranium fuel have also been included. The purpose of these phases is to identify any increased uncertainties, relative to uranium fuel, that are associated with plutonium and thorium fuel.

This report provides an analysis of the twelve sets of results supplied by seven experts from five countries. Participants have used nuclear data from three different evaluations having applied both Monte Carlo and deterministic methods of analysis. Participants using the same nuclear data report similar results, although some differences have been noted, particularly in relation to the fuel temperature coefficients and the whole-core xenon fission product poisoning effect. There is also evidence of good agreement between Monte Carlo and deterministic solutions for some of the participants despite the difficult nature of the problem with stochastic geometry.

The science and application of radiological protection have continually evolved since the beginning of the 20th century when the health effects of radiation first began to be discovered. Given these changes, notably over the past 10 to 15 years, and considering the recent evolution of social values and judgements, the NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) felt that it would be worthwhile to identify possible emerging challenges as well as ongoing challenges that will require new approaches to reach sustainable decisions.

This report concisely describes the CRPPH views of the most significant challenges to radiological protection policy, regulation and application that are likely to emerge or are already emerging. While not proposing solutions to these issues, the report characterises key aspects and pressures, taking into account the evolution of science, society and experience, such that governments can better foresee these challenges and be prepared to address them appropriately.

The sixth workshop of the OECD/NEA Forum on Stakeholder Confidence (FSC) was hosted by ENRESA, the Spanish agency responsible for the management of radioactive waste and the dismantling of nuclear power plants, and the Council of Nuclear Safety (CSN), with the support of the Association of Spanish Municipalities in Areas Surrounding Nuclear Power Plants (AMAC). The workshop took place at L'Hospitalet de l'Infant, Catalonia, Spain, on 21-23 November 2005.

At this workshop, Spanish stakeholders and delegates from 14 countries discussed current co-ordination of radioactive waste management decision making in Spain. Findings were shared from Cowam-Spain, a co-operative research project on the involvement of local stakeholders, the relationship between national and local levels of decision making, and the long-term sustainability of decisions regarding the siting of a centralised interim storage facility for high-level waste. These proceedings include the workshop presentations and discussions, as well as the rapporteurs' reflections on what was learned about policy making and participative decision making.

Regulating the long-term safety of geological disposal of radioactive waste poses special challenges due to the very long timescales involved. This report has been prepared to help foster a common understanding of the fundamental safety objectives of deep geological repositories and the applicable criteria. It provides important guidance for the national programmes that are developing or refining regulations. A common understanding may also contribute to clearer communication and public understanding of regulatory criteria.

In the context of sustainable development policies, decision making in the energy sector should be based on carefully designed trade-offs which take into account, insofar as feasible, all of the alternative options' advantages and drawbacks from the economic, environmental and social viewpoints. This report examines various aspects of nuclear and other energy chains for generating electricity, and provides illustrative examples of quantitative and qualitative indicators for those chains with regard to economic competitiveness, environmental burdens (such as air emissions and solid waste streams) and social aspects (including employment and health impacts).

This report will be of interest to policy makers and analysts in the energy and electricity sectors. It offers authoritative data and references to published literature on energy chain analysis which can be used in support of decision making.

Scientific knowledge is constantly evolving as more advanced technologies become available and more in-depth research is carried out. Given the potential implications that new findings could have on policy decisions, in 1998 the NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) performed a survey of state-of-the-art research in radiological protection science. This study suggested that, while the current system of radiological protection was well-underpinned by scientific understanding, growing knowledge in several areas could seriously impact policy and regulation. Ten years later, the CRPPH has again performed a survey of state-of-the-art research which reiterates and clarifies its earlier conclusions.

This report summarises the results of this latest CRPPH assessment of radiological protection science. Specifically, it explains that knowledge of non-targeted and delayed effects, as well as of individual sensitivity, have been significantly refined over the past ten years. Although at this point there is still no scientific certainty in these areas, based on the most recent studies and results, the report strongly suggests that policy makers and regulatory authorities should consider possible impacts that could arise from research in the next few years. Further, the report identifies research areas that should be supported to more definitively answer scientific questions having the most direct impacts on policy choices.

This workshop was the fourth in a series devoted to the application of synchrotron radiation techniques for studying actinide species. The unique properties of synchrotron radiation allow the elucidation of the molecular and electronic structure of radionuclide samples. Since 2004 when the previous workshop was held, worldwide experimental capabilities for carrying out such studies have expanded. Synergy is developing with advanced theoretical and simulation tools, and it is expected that this progress will contribute significantly to developments in areas such as radioactive waste management, site environmental remediation and separation technologies, as well as in the radiopharmaceutical industry.

The Actinide-XAS-2006 workshop brought together experts in solution, co-ordination and solid state chemistry of the actinides, actinide physics and environmental and life sciences. Workshop sessions were organised on cutting-edge experimental techniques, theoretical and modelling tools and reports on experimental facilities. These proceedings contain abstracts and peer-reviewed papers for 24 presentations as well as 33 poster session contributions, representing the current state of the art in speciation techniques and facilities for radioactive materials at synchrotron light sources.

Significant numbers of nuclear facilities will need to be decommissioned in the coming decades. In this context, NEA member countries are placing increasing emphasis on the involvement of stakeholders in the associated decision procedures. This study reviews decommissioning experience with a view to identifying stakeholder concerns and best practice in addressing them. The lessons learnt about the end of the facility life cycle can also contribute to better foresight in siting and building new facilities. This report will be of interest to all major players in the field of decommissioning, in particular policy makers, implementers, regulators and representatives of local host communities.

Emergency situations demand that actions be taken by the responsible organisations at the local, national and international levels to mitigate their impact on people and the environment. In order to be able to deliver an effective emergency response in both the short and long term, it is necessary to make and maintain adequate plans and arrangements. Prudence dictates that these be prepared in advance of an emergency situation, contain appropriate elements for preparedness, response and assistance, and take adequate account of international interfaces. The successful management of an emergency, along with the effectiveness of the response arrangements, will be facilitated through the use of well-planned tests and exercises.

Drawing on the collective experience of the OECD/NEA Working Party on Nuclear Emergency Matters and its International Nuclear Emergency Exercise (INEX) series, this report aims to assist national and international emergency authorities in developing their own exercise-specific strategy by providing insights on exercise justification, design, conduct and evaluation. The focus is on providing an understanding, basis and strategy for the decision to exercise rather than detailed guidance on how to exercise.

Exercising is one tool for enhancing performance, testing plans and identifying areas for improvement; however, it is an important and resource-intensive tool. Therefore, the objective of this report is to provide a summary of strategic considerations for improving the value of planning, conducting and evaluating exercises and following up on lessons identified. This strategy may also find applicability in developing approaches for other types of non-nuclear emergency exercises.
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In parallel to the work carried out by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) to review the broad principles of protection, the NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) has examined how radiological protection could be better implemented by governments and/or regulatory authorities. To this end, the CRPPH has developed a concept that it calls “the process of regulatory authorisation”. It is described in detail in this report, and is intended to help regulatory authorities apply more transparently, coherently and simply the broad recommendations of the ICRP to the real-life business of radiological protection regulation and application. The CRPPH recognises the importance of an appropriate level of stakeholder involvement in the process of regulatory authorisation.

One of the main missions of nuclear regulators is to protect the public, and this cannot be completely achieved without public confidence. The more a regulatory process is transparent, the more such confidence will grow. Despite important cultural differences across countries, a number of common features characterise media and public expectations regarding any activity with an associated risk.

A common understanding of transparency and main stakeholders' expectations in the field of nuclear safety were identified during this workshop, together with a number of conditions and practices aimed at improving the transparency of nuclear regulatory activities. These conditions and practices are described herein, and will be of particular interest to all those working in the nuclear regulatory field. Their implementation may, however, differ from one country to another depending on national context.

In the field of coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics computation there is a need to enhance scientific knowledge in order to develop advanced modelling techniques for new nuclear technologies and concepts, as well as current applications.

Recently developed best-estimate computer code systems for modelling 3-D coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics transients in nuclear cores and for the coupling of core phenomena and system dynamics need to be compared against each other and validated against results from experiments. International benchmark studies have been set up for this purpose.

The present volume is a follow-up to the first two volumes. While the first described the specification of the benchmark, the second presented the results of the first exercise that identified the key parameters and important issues concerning the thermal-hydraulic system modelling of the simulated transient caused by the switching on of a main coolant pump when the other three were in operation. Volume 3 summarises the results for Exercise 2 of the benchmark that identifies the key parameters and important issues concerning the 3-D neutron kinetics modelling of the simulated transient.

These studies are based on an experiment that was conducted by Bulgarian and Russian engineers during the plant-commissioning phase at the VVER-1000 Kozloduy Unit 6. The final volume will soon be published, completing Phase 1 of this study.

This study analyses a range of advanced nuclear fuel cycle options from the perspective of their effect on radioactive waste management policies. It presents various fuel cycle options which illustrate differences between alternative technologies, but does not purport to cover all foreseeable future fuel cycles. The analysis extends the work carried out in previous studies, assesses the fuel cycles as a whole, including all radioactive waste generated at each step of the cycles, and covers high-level waste repository performance for the different fuel cycles considered.

The estimates of quantities and types of waste arising from advanced fuel cycles are based on best available data and experts' judgement. The effects of various advanced fuel cycles on the management of radioactive waste are assessed relative to current technologies and options, using tools such as repository performance analysis and cost studies.

The plutonium produced during the operation of commercial nuclear power plants or that has become available from the dismantlement of nuclear weapons needs to be properly managed. One important contribution to the management process consists in validating the calculation methods and nuclear data used for the prediction of power in systems using mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel. A series of computational physics benchmarks and issues regarding multiple recycling in various MOX-fuelled systems have been studied and published by the NEA. This has led to improvements in the nuclear data libraries and calculation methods. Full validation requires comparing those findings with data from experiments. The experiment at the KRITZ research reactor in Sweden is being used for this purpose.

This report provides an analysis of the 12 sets of results supplied by 16 experts from 7 countries, together with the comparison against the KRITZ evaluated experimental data. The report concludes that the computer codes and cross-sections used by the participants, which are presently in widespread use, can adequately predict the multiplication factor and pin-power distributions of the MOX cores.

This report will be of particular interest to reactor physicists and designers as well as to nuclear power plant utilities.

In the field of coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics computation there is a need to enhance scientific knowledge in order to develop advanced modelling techniques for new nuclear technologies and concepts, as well as for current applications. Recently developed “best-estimate” computer code systems for modelling 3-D coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics transients in nuclear cores and for coupling core phenomena and system dynamics (PWR, BWR, VVER) need to be compared against each other and validated against results from experiments. International benchmark studies have been set up for this purpose.

The present volume is the third in a series of four and summarises the results of the second benchmark exercise, which identifies the key parameters and important issues concerning the coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulic core modelling with provided core inlet and outlet boundary conditions. The transient addressed is a turbine trip in a boiling water reactor, involving pressurisation events in which the coupling between core phenomena and system dynamics plays an important role. In addition, the data made available from experiments carried out at the Peach Bottom 2 reactor (a GE-designed BWR/4) make the present benchmark particularly valuable.

An important factor for public confidence in the nuclear regulator is the general public trust of the government and its representatives, which is clearly not the same in all countries. Likewise, cultural differences between countries can be considerable, and similar means of communication between government authorities and the public may not be universally effective.

Nevertheless, this workshop identified a number of common principles for the communication of nuclear regulatory decisions that can be recommended to all regulators. They have been cited in particular for their ability to help build, measure and/or improve overall public confidence in the nuclear regulator.

The objective of the Phase II-D Burn-up Credit Criticality Benchmark was to study the impact of control rod (CR) insertion on spent fuel composition and on reactivity for a PWR-UO2 assembly. For this purpose, a range of CR insertion profiles during irradiation were defined, and participants were asked to calculate the spent fuel inventory and the neutron multiplication factor for each case. To assist in the evaluation of the benchmark results, the sensitivity of the neutron multiplication factor to a variation of isotope concentration was performed.

The large effect of CR insertion (9 000 pcm when the CRs are inserted from 0 to 45 GWd/t) is due in part to the fact that the CRs are axially fully inserted in this benchmark. A more “typical” CR insertion profile would not consider CRs fully inserted throughout the irradiation, particularly over three cycles. An additional benchmark has been initiated to study the effect of CR insertion when considering partial axial CR insertion and an axial burn-up profile.

The efficient and safe management of spent fuel arising from the operation of commercial nuclear power plants is an important issue. In this context, the partitioning and transmutation (P&T) of minor actinides and long-lived fission products can play an important role, reducing significantly the burden on geological repositories of radioactive waste and enabling their more effective use.

International interest in accelerator-driven systems (ADS) has been expressed due to their potential use in the transmutation of minor actinides. However, much R&D work is still required in order to demonstrate the desired capability of the system as a whole, and the current methods of analysis and nuclear data for minor actinide burners are not as well established as those for conventionally fuelled systems.

A series of theoretical ADS physics benchmarks has thus been organised by the NEA. Many improvements and clarifications in nuclear data and calculation methods have been achieved. However, following an initial series of benchmarks, some significant discrepancies in important parameters were not fully understood and still required clarification. Hence, the first experiment-based benchmark using MASURCA critical and subcritical experiments (called MUSE-4 experiments) was launched.

This report provides an analysis of the benchmark results supplied by 16 institutions from 14 countries. The calculated results were compared against experimental data, whenever available. This report will be of particular interest to reactor physicists and nuclear data evaluators developing nuclear systems, especially ADS, for radioactive waste management.

This status report on Decommissioning Funding: Ethics, Implementation, Uncertainties is based on a review of recent literature and materials presented at NEA meetings in 2003 and 2004, and particularly at a topical session organised in November 2004 on funding issues associated with the decommissioning of nuclear power facilities. The report also draws on the experience of the NEA Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling (WPDD).

This report offers, in a concise form, an overview of relevant considerations on decommissioning funding mechanisms with regard to ethics, implementation and uncertainties. Underlying ethical principles found in international agreements are identified, and factors influencing the accumulation and management of funds for decommissioning nuclear facilities are discussed together with the main sources of uncertainties of funding systems.

Germany is exploring a new approach towards the final management of its radioactive waste. This international workshop, held in Germany, attracted 65 participants from 13 countries. A little more than half of the participants were German stakeholders.

During the workshop invited speakers, representing different groups of stakeholders, commented on relevant aspects of the new German approach being proposed. This served as a basis for subsequent round-table discussions.

These proceedings provide a historical introduction to radioactive waste management in Germany, give a detailed summary of the workshop presentations and discussions that took place, and also provide the NEA Secretariat's reflections which help place the main lessons of the workshop into a wider perspective. Five presentations - the three keynote papers and the two thematic reports - are also reproduced herein.

The "Red Book", jointly prepared by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), was first published in 1965 and has since grown to be a recognised world reference on uranium. Over the 40 years of its existence, the Red Book has collected an impressive quantity of official data supplied by governments.

The Red Book Retrospective was undertaken to collect, collate, analyse and publish all of the key information collected in the 20 editions of the Red Book published between 1965 and 2004. Additionally, every effort has been made to fill in gaps in the record to provide the most complete and exhaustive information possible. As a result, the Red Book Retrospective gives a full historical profile of the world uranium industry in the areas of exploration, resources, production, reactor-related requirements, inventories and price. It provides in-depth information relating to the histories of the major uranium-producing countries including Australia, Canada, France, Germany (including the former German Democratic Republic), the Russian Federation (including the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics) and the United States. For the first time, for example, a comprehensive look at annual and cumulative production and demand of uranium since the inception of the atomic age is possible. Besides reporting and documenting the historical data, expert analyses provide fresh insights into important aspects of the industry including: the cost of discovery, resources to production ratios and the time to reach production after discovery, among others.

Taken together, the Red Book Retrospective provides the most complete record of the uranium industry publicly available, dating from the birth of civilian nuclear energy through to the dawn of the 21st century.

For many politicians and members of the public, the very long life of some of the radio-nuclides in radioactive waste is an issue of particular importance in terms of its ultimate disposal. The developing techniques of partitioning (isolating specific radioactive elements) and transmutation (re-irradiating them in order to convert them to shorter-lived or stable elements) hold the promise of eliminating or greatly reducing the long-lived radioactivity, bringing with it other technical benefits.

In France, the 1991 Waste Act required inter alia a research and development programme on partitioning and transmutation, with a milestone for review in 2006. The French authorities requested the OECD/NEA to organise an independent, international peer review of the results of this extensive research and development programme, with a view to help inform the parliamentary decision-making process on the way forward for radioactive waste disposal in France. This report presents the findings from that review, which was conducted by ten of the foremost international experts in the field.

The Second International Workshop on the Indemnification of Nuclear Damage was held in Bratislava, Slovak Republic, from 18 to 20 May 2005. The workshop was co-organised by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency and the Nuclear Regulatory Authority of the Slovak Republic. It attracted wide participation from national nuclear authorities, regulators, operators of nuclear installations, nuclear insurers and international organisations.

The purpose of the workshop was to assess the third party liability and compensation mechanisms that would be implemented by participating countries in the event of a nuclear accident taking place within or near their borders. To accommodate this objective, two fictitious accident scenarios were developed: one involving a fire in a nuclear installation located in the Slovak Republic and resulting in the release of significant amounts of radioactive materials off-site, and the other a fire on board a ship transporting enriched uranium hexafluoride along the Danube River. The first scenario was designed to involve the greatest possible number of countries, with the second being restricted to countries with a geographical proximity to the Danube. These proceedings contain the papers presented at the workshop, as well as reports on the discussion sessions held.

This document serves as a summary of the work of Subgroup 20 (SG20) on covariance matrix evaluation and processing in the resolved/unresolved resonance regions, organised under the auspices of the NEA's Nuclear Science Committee Working Party on International Evaluation Co-operation (WPEC).

The work described in this report focuses on: summarising the issues related to covariance evaluation in the resonance region; discussing the retroactive method used in the SAMMY code; describing the compact format for storing huge covariance matrices in ENDF-6 files; recent developments and upgrades of processing codes to generate a multi-group covariance matrix from resonance parameter covariance data.

Subgroup 7 of the NEA Working Party on International Nuclear Data Co-operation (WPEC) was established to re-evaluate the nuclear data standards cross-section. These cross-section data are the basis for the evaluated nuclear data libraries, as most of the underlying experimental data are measured relative to these standards. The incentive to undertake this re-evaluation work was based on the fact that significant improvements to the experimental database have been made since the standard data were last evaluated some 20 years ago.

The work of the subgroup was performed in close collaboration with an IAEA Co ordinated Research Project (CRP) and a task force of the US Cross-section Evaluation Working Group (CSEWG). This report provides a brief overview of the work accomplished, outlining the main findings and providing a full list of references. A more extensive report will be issued by the above-mentioned IAEA Co-ordinated Research Project.

The accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant in 1986 heightened awareness of the need to improve the international legal framework governing the safe and peaceful uses of nuclear energy. Numerous legal instruments have subsequently been adopted.

This compendium examines the developments which have taken place in international nuclear law since 1986. It reproduces a number of articles which have been published in the OECD/NEA Nuclear Law Bulletin, accompanied by some previously unpublished works. The principal legal instruments examined in this publication govern early notification and assistance in the event of a nuclear accident, nuclear safety, the safety of radioactive waste and spent fuel, and nuclear liability and compensation.

Nuclear regulatory self-assessment together with the benchmarking of regulatory practices against those of other countries operating nuclear power plants are key elements in maintaining a high level of nuclear safety. In that light, the Spanish Consejo de Seguridad Nuclear (CSN) formally asked the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) to establish an international peer review team to assess the CSN report on the lessons learnt as a result of the 2004 Vandellós II event involving essential service water system degradation.

The International Review Team considers the CSN report prepared in follow-up to the Vandellós event to be a commendable effort in regulatory self-assessment. The report, complemented by this international peer review, should enable the CSN to take appropriate action to ensure that its regulatory supervision is in line with best international practice.

Refined models for best-estimate calculations based on good-quality experimental data can improve the understanding of phenomena and the quantification of margins for operating nuclear power reactors. According to experts, refinements should not be limited to currently available macroscopic approaches but should be extended to next-generation approaches that focus on more microscopic processes. Multi-scale/multi-physics approaches are the way forward in this respect.

This report describes the specification of an international benchmark based on high-quality fine mesh data, released through the government of Japan and the Nuclear Power Engineering Corporation (NUPEC), with the aim of advancing the insufficiently developed field of two-phase flow theory. It has been designed for systematically assessing and comparing different numerical models used for predicting detailed void distributions and critical powers.

Additional volumes concerning this benchmark are planned and are intended to show to what extent the most recent approaches are capable of predicting two-phase flow phenomena.

2005 was a year of major activity within the nuclear sector. Interest in nuclear energy is growing significantly in many OECD member countries with the construction of new plants, new plans for nuclear futures along with innovations in enrichment and reprocessing. This and other insights related to nuclear energy can be found in Nuclear Energy Data, the Nuclear Energy Agency's annual compilation of essential statistics to 2025 on nuclear energy in OECD countries. The compilation provides readers with a comprehensive and easy-to-access overview of the current situation and expected trends in the various sectors of the nuclear fuel cycle.

Considered to be the standard reference work for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law, the Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication providing its suscribers with up-to-date information on all major developments falling within the domain of nuclear law. Published twice a year in both English and French, it covers legislative developments in almost 60 countries around the world as well as reporting on relevant jurisprudence and administrative decisions, international agreements and regulatory activities of international organisations.

Considered to be the standard reference work for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law, the Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication providing its subscribers with up-to-date information on all major developments falling within the domain of nuclear law. Published twice a year in both English and French, it covers legislative developments in almost 60 countries around the world as well as reporting on relevant jurisprudence and administrative decisions, international agreements and regulatory activities of international organisations.

This book, prepared by NEA member country experts, contains data and analyses relevant to nuclear power plant life management and the plants' extended, longer-term operation (LTO). It addresses technical, economic and environmental aspects and provides insights into the benefits and challenges of plant life management and LTO.

It will be of interest to policy makers and senior managers in the nuclear power sector and governmental bodies involved in nuclear power programme design and management. The data and information on current trends in nuclear power plant life management will be useful to researchers and analysts working in the field of nuclear energy system assessment.

The Incident Reporting System (IRS) is an essential element of the international operating experience feedback system for nuclear power plants. The IRS is jointly operated and managed by the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), a semi-autonomous body within the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), a specialised agency within the United Nations System.

Hydrogen has the potential to play an important role as a sustainable and environmentally acceptable energy carrier in the 21st century. Since natural sources of pure hydrogen are extremely limited, it is necessary to develop technologies to produce large quantities of hydrogen economically. The currently dominant technology for producing hydrogen is based on reforming fossil fuels, a process which releases greenhouse gases. Hydrogen produced by water cracking, using heat and surplus electricity from nuclear power plants, requires no fossil fuels and results in lower greenhouse gas emissions. This report presents the state of the art in the nuclear production of hydrogen and describes its associated scientific and technical challenges.

The ISOE Programme was created by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency in 1992 to promote and co-ordinate international co-operative undertakings in the area of worker protection at nuclear power plants. The programme provides experts in occupational radiation protection with a forum for communication and exchange of experience. The ISOE databases enable the analysis of occupational exposure data from 478 operating and shutdown commercial nuclear power plants participating in the programme (representing some 90% of the world's total operating commercial reactors).

The Fourteenth Annual Report of the ISOE Programme summarises achievements made during 2004 and compares annual occupational exposure data. Principal developments in ISOE participating countries are also described.

Radiation is used in many applications of modern technology. However, its proper handling requires competent knowledge of the basic physical laws governing its interaction with matter. To ensure its safe use, appropriate tools for predicting radiation fields and doses, as well as pertinent regulations, are required.

One area of radiation physics that has received much attention concerns electron-photon transport in matter. PENELOPE is a modern, general-purpose Monte Carlo tool for simulating the transport of electrons and photons, which is applicable for arbitrary materials and in a wide energy range. PENELOPE provides quantitative guidance for many practical situations and techniques, including electron and X-ray spectroscopies, electron microscopy and microanalysis, biophysics, dosimetry, medical diagnostics and radiotherapy, and radiation damage and shielding.

These proceedings contain the extensively revised teaching notes of the latest workshop/training course on PENELOPE (version 2006), along with a detailed description of the improved physics models, numerical algorithms and structure of the code system.

With a declining number of nuclear data evaluators in the world and an increasing demand for high-quality data, there is a risk that evaluators will concentrate on producing new nuclear data to the detriment of developing new models and methods for evaluating existing data. In this context, it is essential to identify the basic physics issues that are going to be important for future nuclear data evaluation processes. At the same time, demand for new types of data, which will be needed in emerging nuclear applications, could warrant new evaluation techniques that are presently only used in the context of fundamental research and not in nuclear data production.

These proceedings present the main findings of the "Perspectives on Nuclear Data for the Next Decade" workshop, which explored innovative approaches to nuclear data evaluation with the aim of opening new perspectives, building new research programmes and investigating prospects for international collaboration.

The safe and efficient management of spent fuel from the operation of commercial nuclear power plants is an important issue. Worldwide, more than 250 000 tons of spent fuel from currently operating reactors will require disposal. These numbers account for only high-level radioactive waste generated by present-day power reactors.

Nearly all issues related to risks to future generations arising from the long-term disposal of such spent nuclear fuel is attributable to only about 1% of its content. This 1% is made up primarily of plutonium, neptunium, americium and curium (called transuranic elements) and the long-lived isotopes of iodine and technetium.When transuranics are removed from discharged fuel destined for disposal, the toxic nature of the spent fuel drops below that of natural uranium ore (that which was originally mined for the nuclear fuel) within a period of several hundred to a thousand years. This significantly reduces the burden on geological repositories and the problem of addressing the remaining long-term residues can thus de done in controlled environments having timescales of centuries rather than millennia stretching beyond 10 000 years.

Transmutation is one of the means being explored to address the disposal of transuranic elements. To achieve this, advanced reactors systems, appropriate fuels, separation techniques and associated fuel cycle strategies are required.

This status report begins by providing a clear definition of partitioning and transmutation (P&T), and then describes the state of the art concerning the challenges facing the implementation of P&T, scenario studies and specific issues related to accelerator-driven systems (ADS) dynamics and safety, long-lived fission product transmutation and the impact of nuclear data uncertainty on transmuation system design. The report will be of particular interest to nuclear scientists working on P&T issues as well as advanced fuel cycles in general.

Computational benchmarks based on well-defined problems with a complete set of input and a unique solution are often used as a means of verifying the reliability of numerical solutions. The problems usually employ some simplifications in order to make the analysis manageable and to enable the consistent comparison of several different models, yet complex enough to make the problem applicable to actual reactor core designs.

The present benchmark has been designed to provide the framework to assess the ability of modern reactor kinetic codes to predict the transient response of a core partially loaded with mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel. It is a follow-up to a pressurised water reactor (PWR) benchmark designed to assess the ability of spatial kinetics codes to model rod ejection transients in a core with uranium-dioxide (UO2) fuel. The current problem adds the complexity of modelling a rod eject in a core fuelled partially with weapons-grade MOX. The core chosen for the simulation is based on a four-loop Westinghouse PWR power plant similar to the reactor chosen for plutonium disposition in the United States.

This report provides an analysis of the results supplied by experts. The report will be of interest to reactor physicists and designers as well as to nuclear power plant utilities.

The release of radioactive materials from regulatory control is subject to release limits which are often based on published recommendations of international organisations, which aim to minimise radiological risks. The application of the recommendations has thus led to limits being set at very low activity levels. Adequate methods of measurement must be available to demonstrate or verify that the activity levels are lower than the recommended values. Measurements would also have to be made under practical industrial conditions, where various constraints could significantly influence the results. Hence, the costs of activity measurements at extremely low levels on large quantities of equipment with complex geometries could be prohibitively high.

The NEA Co-operative Programme on Decommissioning (CPD) established a special Task Group to study these issues in an analytical and structured manner. This report describes the group’s findings regarding the objectives and methodology for radiological characterisation and the equipment used for measurements. The report also contains case studies from NEA member countries and a critical discussion of different methods and techniques.

Access to accurate and reliable information is of prime importance in all nuclear energy applications. This is especially true in the area of nuclear criticality safety for the front- and back-end of the fuel cycle, including transport and storage of spent fuel. The data needed in this area comprises reference values for minimum critical mass, concentration and geometry, as well as the maximum critical moderation of well-defined systems. The accuracy of such data influences both the safety and economy of the fuel cycle.

In 1999, the NEA Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety (WPNCS) established an expert group to study the status of nuclear criticality safety reference values (minimum and maximum critical values), following the detection of large deviations in existing reference values between different criticality safety handbooks and guidelines.

The present report represents the outcome of the NEA study and contains a compilation and evaluation of nuclear criticality safety reference values from various sources. Some of the values were taken from published reports, while others were calculated specifically for this study. Many discrepancies have been identified and resolved, thus reinforcing the importance of data verification and validation as essential tools in this field.

The fundamental objective of all nuclear safety regulatory bodies is to ensure that nuclear utilities operate their plants in an acceptably safe manner at all times. Learning from experience has been a key element in meeting this objective. It is therefore very important for nuclear power plant operators to have an active programme for collecting, analysing and acting on the lessons of operating experience that could affect the safety of their plants.

NEA experts have noted that almost all of the recent, significant events reported at international meetings have occurred earlier in one form or another. Counter-actions are usually well-known, but information does not always seem to reach end users, or corrective action programmes are not always rigorously applied. Thus, one of the challenges that needs to be met in order to maintain good operational safety performance is to ensure that operating experience is promptly reported to established reporting systems, preferably international in order to benefit from a larger base of experience, and that the lessons from operating experience are actually used to promote safety.

This report focuses on how regulatory bodies can ensure that operating experience is used effectively to promote the safety of nuclear power plants. While directed at nuclear power plants, the principles in this report may apply to other nuclear facilities as well.

Releasing the site of a nuclear installation from radiological control is usually one of the last steps of decommissioning. To date, site release has been practised in a limited number of cases only as most decommissioning projects have not yet advanced to a state where the release of the site is imminent or because the site will continue to be used for nuclear activities. Therefore, for a number of decommissioning projects where planning for site release will soon start, this status report provides useful considerations based on NEA member country experience and expert advice.

In addition to describing the basic considerations which must be taken into account when deciding on the release of a site, the status report provides guidance on establishing release criteria. The report also addresses site release implementation, measurement techniques and underground contamination. It will be of particular interest to regulators, implementers, R&D experts and policy makers dealing with decommissioning and dismantling issues.

A major activity of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) in the field of radioactive waste management is the organisation of international peer reviews of national studies and projects. The peer reviews help national programmes assess accomplished work. The general comments expressed in the reviews are also of potential interest to other member countries. The present review was carried out to inform the French Government whether the "Dossier 2005 Argile" prepared by the National Agency for the Management of Radioactive Waste (Andra) was consistent with international practices and whether future research needs were properly identified.

This status report on Selecting Strategies for the Decommissioning of Nuclear Facilities is based on the viewpoints and materials presented at a seminar held in Tarragona, Spain on 1-4 September 2003 as well as the experience of the NEA Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling (WPDD). It identifies, reviews and analyses factors influencing decommissioning strategies and addresses the challenges associated with balancing these factors in the process of strategy selection. It gives recognition to the fact that, in addition to technical characteristics, there are many other factors that influence the selection of a decommissioning strategy and that cannot be quantified, such as policy, regulatory and socio-economic factors and aspects that reach far into the future. Uncertainties associated with such factors are a challenge to those who have to take decisions on a decommissioning strategy.

Potentially interested groups of readers are regulators, implementers, R&D experts and policy makers dealing with decommissioning and dismantling issues as well as politicians, decision makers and the general public.

The NEA Working Party on Nuclear Criticality Safety established an Expert Group on Source Convergence in Criticality Safety Analysis to explore the problems of slow convergence and statistical fluctuations that can combine to produce unreliable source distributions and fission rates as well as underestimates of keff and its uncertainty. Aimed at fostering improved robustness of criticality safety analyses with respect to source convergence, the group's first task was to assemble four test problems that represent cases previously encountered in criticality safety analyses. They are intended to be used as a basis for comparison of source convergence performance rather than comparison of physics results. The problems include a reactor fuel storage array, a spent fuel pin array, an aqueous processing system and an array of small fissile components. The results of the four test problems are described herein.

This NEA workshop is the third in a series devoted to the application of synchrotron accelerator-based techniques to radionuclide and actinide sciences. As synchrotron radiation is particularly well-suited for obtaining information about the molecular structure of radionuclides and actinide species, it is useful for understanding and predicting the behaviour of these hazardous elements in the environment. Application areas include risk assessment of nuclear waste storage, remediation of contaminated sites, development of effective separation technologies and radiopharmaceutical chemistry.

These proceedings contain all of the abstracts and some of the full papers presented at the workshop. In addition to presenting the latest experimental and theoretical results, the workshop also provided opportunities for knowledge transfer between established experts in the field and young scientists.

Twenty years after the major accident at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, the radioactive contamination continues to have an important impact on lives in the vicinity, and to a lesser extent in areas such as Western Europe and beyond. The purpose of this report is not to address clinical or environmental studies, but to look at how people are coping with the difficulties they still face. Commissioned by the Committee for Radiation Protection and Public Health of the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the report focuses on the role of radiological protection and how this discipline has been deployed to help people manage their lives.

Although the topic of this report concerns radioactivity and nuclear power, it can also be very useful to policy makers and experts dealing with the aftermath of wide-scale disasters, regardless of their causes (natural, accidental or malicious).

Whilst we all hope never to see another event causing contamination on the scale that followed Chernobyl, it is prudent to be prepared. Hence this report also describes many of the problems that could need to be faced in the longer term by technical specialists, should such a contamination event occur, and presents ways of dealing with them. This report will provide readers with insights into how to plan better for this type of event, in particular beyond the immediate response phase.

The safe and economical operation of nuclear energy technologies requires detailed and reliable calculations. While simulation calculations are becoming more and more economical thanks to rapid advances in computer technology, the accuracy of these calculations is largely determined by the accuracy of the atomic and nuclear input data.

The Joint Evaluated Fission and Fusion (JEFF) Project is a collaborative effort among NEA Data Bank member countries to produce high-quality evaluated nuclear data. These data can be used to help improve the safety and economics of existing installations as well as to design advanced nuclear reactors and their associated fuel cycles. Such data may also be useful in the area of radioactive waste management.

The present report describes the contents of the general purpose file of the JEFF-3.1 data library. The library contains a number of different data types, including neutron and proton interaction data, radioactive decay data, fission yield data, thermal scattering law data and photo-atomic interaction data.

The NEA Co-operative Programme for the Exchange of Scientific and Technical Information Concerning Nuclear Installation Decommissioning Projects (CPD) is a joint undertaking which functions within the framework of an agreement between 21 organisations actively executing or planning the decommissioning of nuclear facilities. The objective of the CPD is to acquire and share information from operational experience in the decommissioning of nuclear installations that is useful for future projects. The information exchange also ensures that best international practice is made widely available and encourages the application of safe, environmentally friendly and cost-effective methods in all decommissioning projects. By the end of 2006, the Programme scope included 26 reactors, 8 reprocessing plants and 8 fuel facility projects.

This report describes the progress made and the main results obtained by the CPD during 1995-2005. Although part of the information exchanged within the CPD is confidential and restricted to programme participants, experience of general interest gained under the programme’s auspices is released for broader use. Such information is brought to the attention of all NEA members through regular reports to the NEA Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC), as well as through experience summary documents such as this report. The RWMC Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling (WPDD) is grateful to the CPD for sharing the experience from its important work.

Governments and regulatory authorities are responsible for the definition of regulatory controls or conditions, if any, that should be applied to radioactive sources or radiation exposure situations in order to protect the public, workers and the environment. Although countries use different policy and structural approaches fo fulfil this responsibility, the recommendations of the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) are generally used as at least part of the basis for protection. Previously, the ICRP recommended the use of variable approaches to protection. New ICRP recommendations are proposing a single, conceptually simple and self-coherent approach to defining appropriate protection under all circumstances.

While the ICRP has been reviewing the broad principles of protection, the NEA Committee on Radiation Protection and Public Health (CRPPH) has been focusing its efforts on how radiological protection could be better implemented by governments and/or regulatory authorities. To this end, the CRPPH has developed a concept that it calls "the process of regulatory authorisation". It is described in detail in this report, and is intended to help regulatory authorities apply more transparently, coherently and simply the broad recommendations of the ICRP to the real-life business of radiological protection regulation and application. In developing this concept, the CRPPH recognises the importance of an appropriate level of stakeholder involvement in the process.

This report examines the roles that storage plays, or might play, in radioactive waste management in OECD/NEA member countries. A better understanding of these roles provides valuable input to current debates on the end-points of long-lived radioactive waste management. The report focuses on spent nuclear fuel, high-level waste from reprocessing and other long-lived, solid radioactive wastes.

Since 2001 the price of uranium has steadily climbed over five-fold, at a rate and reaching heights not seen since the 1970s. As a result, the uranium industry has seen a surge of activity, ending a period of over 20 years of relative stagnation. Worldwid

It is essential to calculate the structural integrity of reactor components with a high degree of accuracy in order to make correct decisions regarding plant lifetime at the design stage, safety margins and potential plant life extensions. The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) is therefore organising a series of benchmarks to verify the current international level of accuracy in pressure vessel fluence calculations and to clarify the relative merits of various methodologies. By extension, this enables the identification of areas for possible improvements in the various calculation schemes.

As a follow-up to the previous UO2-fuelled VENUS-1 two-dimensional (2-D) and VENUS-3 three-dimensional (3-D) benchmarks, and given that many commercial nuclear power plants in Europe and in Japan use MOX fuel and that the use of MOX fuel in LWRs presents different neutron characteristics, the present benchmark was launched in 2004 using the measured data of the VENUS-2 MOX-fuelled critical experiments. This report provides an analysis of the results supplied by 12 participants from 7 countries. The results have revealed that the computer codes and nuclear data currently used for MOX-fuelled systems in OECD/NEA member countries appear able to produce results with a sufficiently high level of accuracy in dosimetry calculations. This report will be of particular interest not only to reactor physicists and nuclear data evaluators, but also to nuclear utilities.

In the field of coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics computation there is a need to enhance scientific knowledge in order to develop advanced modelling techniques for new nuclear technologies and concepts, as well as current applications.

Recently developed best-estimate computer code systems for modelling 3-D coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics transients in nuclear cores and for the coupling of core phenomena and system dynamics need to be compared against each other and validated against results from experiments. International benchmark studies have been set up for this purpose.

The present volume, a follow-up to the first volume describing the specification of the benchmark, presents the results of the first exercise that identifies the key parameters and important issues concerning the thermal-hydraulic system modelling of the simulated transient. This exercise aims to achieve the correct initialisation and testing of the system code models. The transient chosen for the exercise is caused by the switching on of a main coolant pump while the other three are in operation. It is based on an experiment that was conducted by Bulgarian and Russian engineers during the plant-commissioning phase at the VVER-1000 Kozloduy Unit 6.

The United States and the Russian Federation have each agreed to dispose of 34 tonnes of weapons-grade plutonium that are beyond their defence needs. One effective way to dispose of this plutonium is to convert it into mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel, burn it in a nuclear reactor and use it to produce electricity.

This report describes an international benchmark study that compared the results obtained for six different states in a VVER-1000 reactor core loaded with one-third MOX fuel. This NEA activity contributes to the computer code certification process and to the verification of calculation methods used in the Russian Federation.

Average fuel burn-up in light water reactors (LWRs) has steadily increased with time as technological advances have been made. The practical limit is currently in the region of 50 GWd/t. The main driving forces behind this increase have been to reduce the cost of the nuclear fuel cycle and to benefit from the increased operational flexibility that high burn-ups allow. One of the main questions at this stage is whether this historic trend will continue, or whether there are scientific and technological limits to current LWR fuel burn-ups.

This publication investigates the limitations and potential benefits of very high fuel burn-up (60-100 GWd/t) in light water reactors. It covers technical aspects, such as fuel fabrication, thermal-hydraulic design limits and fuel performance, as well as economic aspects. The report provides several recommendations regarding scientific and technological areas in which further development is required to achieve these very high burn-ups.

The efficient and safe management of spent fuel produced during the operation of commercial nuclear power plants is an important issue. Worldwide, more than 250 000 tons of spent fuel from reactors currently operating will require disposal. These numbers account for only high-level radioactive waste generated by present-day power reactors.

Nearly all issues related to risks to future generations arising from the long-term disposal of such spent nuclear fuel is attributable to only about 1% of its content. This 1% is made up primarily of plutonium, neptunium, americium and curium (called transuranic elements) and the long-lived isotopes of iodine and technetium. When transuranics are removed from discharged fuel destined for disposal, the toxic nature of the spent fuel drops below that of natural uranium ore (that which was originally mined for the nuclear fuel) within a period of several hundred years. This significantly reduces the burden on geological repositories and the problem of addressing the remaining long-term residues can thus be done in controlled environments having timescales of centuries rather than millennia.

To address the disposal of transuranics, accelerator-driven systems (ADS), i.e. a sub-critical system driven by an accelerator to sustain the chain reaction, seem to have great potential for transuranic transmutation, though much R&D work is still required in order to demonstrate their desired capability as a whole system.

This report describes the current status of accelerator and spallation target technologies and suggests technical issues that need to be resolved for ADS applications. It will be of particular interest to nuclear scientists involved in ADS development and in advanced fuel cycles in general.

The key issue in the decommissioning of nuclear facilities is the progressive removal of hazards, by stepwise decontamination and dismantling activities that have to be carried out safely and within the boundaries of an approved safety case. The decommissioning safety case is a collection of arguments and evidence to demonstrate the safety of a decommissioning project. The safety case involves analysing the hazards and the separate stages required for hazard reduction. This status report, drawn from the activities of the OECD/NEA Working Party on Decommissioning and Dismantling (WPDD), will be helpful to individuals and organisations involved in the preparation of a decommissioning safety case.

In response to the interest expressed by its member countries, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has regularly organised biennial information exchange meetings on actinide and fission product partitioning an transmutation (P&T) since 1990, in order to provide experts with a forum to present and discuss the latest developments in the field. This book and its enclosed CD-ROM contain the proceedings of the 8th Information Exchange Meeting held in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA on 9-11 November 2004. The meeting covered the broad spectrum of developments in the field, including the potential impact of P&T on radioactive waste management, new partitioning technologies, fuels for transmuation devices, as well as critical and accelerator-driven transmuting devices. More than 80 papers were presented during the meeting and have been reproduced for the reader herein.

An important issue regarding deterministic transport methods for whole core calculations is that homogenised techniques can introduce errors into results. In addition, with modern computational abilities, direct whole core heterogeneous calculations are becoming increasingly feasible.

Following a previous benchmark in this series in 2003, this 3-D extension case was designed to simulate three core configurations with different levels of axial heterogeneity utilising control rods. A majority of the participants obtained solutions that were more than acceptable for typical nuclear reactor calculations, showing that modern deterministic transport codes and methods can calculate the flux distribution reasonably well without relying upon special homogenisation techniques. The report will be of particular interest to reactor physicists and transport code developers.

Radioactive isotopes continue to play an increasingly important role in medical diagnosis and therapy, key industrial applications and scientific research. They can be vital to the health and well-being of citizens, and contribute to the world economy. It is therefore important to understand their production and use.

This report provides a solid basis for understanding the production and use of radioisotopes in the world today. It will be of interest not only to government policy makers, but also to scientists, medical practitioners, students and industrial users.

In the field of coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics computation there is a need to enhance scientific knowledge in order to develop advanced modelling techniques for new nuclear technologies and concepts as well as for current applications. Recently developed "best-estimate" computer code systems for modelling 3-D coupled neutronics/thermal-hydraulics transients in nuclear cores and for coupling core phenomena and system dynamics (PWR, BWR, VVER) need to be compared against each other and validated against results from experiments. International benchmark studies have been set up for this purpose.

The present report is the second in a series of four and summarises the results of the first benchmark exercise, which identifies the key parameters and important issues concerning the thermal-hydraulic system modelling of the transient, with specified core average axial power distribution and fission power time transient history. The transient addressed is a turbine trip in a boiling water reactor, involving pressurisation events in which the coupling between core phenomena and system dynamics plays an important role. In addition, the data made available from experiments carried out at the Peach Bottom 2 reactor (a GE-designed BWR/4) make the present benchmark particularly valuable.

Probabilistic safety analyses (PSAs) for many of the nuclear power plants throughout the world are being maintained as "living PSAs" (LPSAs), being updated to take account of changes to the design and operation of the plant, improvements in the understanding of how the plant behaves in fault situations and improved PSA methods, models and data. One of the specific applications of a living PSA is the risk monitor, used by operators and regulators to provide risk information employed in the decision-making process to ensure the safe operation of nuclear power plants. Since the first risk monitors were put into operation in 1988, the number of risk monitors worldwide has increased rapidly. By the end of 2003 there were more than 110 in operation and this figure should increase to over 150 when those monitors being developed are placed in service.

Combining these two technical opinion papers into a single publication provides the reader - notably senior researchers and industry leaders, nuclear safety regulators, nuclear power plant operators - with a concise assessment of the current state of the art, thus enabling better analysis when evaluating proposals or the development of these applications.

The OECD/NEA Working Group on the Characterisation, the Understanding and the Performance of Argillaceous Rocks as Repository Host Formations, namely the "Clay Club", examines the various argillaceous rocks that are being considered for the deep geological disposal of radioactive waste, i.e. from plastic, soft, poorly indurated clays to brittle, hard mudstones or shales. The Clay Club considered it necessary and timely to provide a catalogue to gather in a structured way the key geoscientific characteristics of the various argillaceous formations that are - or were - studied in NEA member countries with regard to radioactive waste disposal. The present catalogue represents the outcomes of this Clay Club initiative.

The integration Group for the Safety Case (IGSC) of the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) is co-sponsoring a project with the European Commission to develop a greater understanding of how to achieve the necessary integration for successful design, construction, testing, modelling an performance assessment of engineered barrier systems (EBS). These proceedings include the main findings and presented papers from the second workshop of the EC-NEA EBS project, which covered inter alia research and development work on pre- and post-closure processes; thermal management; thermal, hydraulic, mechanical and chemical process models; and repository design. The workshop was hosted by the US Department of Energy in Las Vegas, USA, on 14-17 September 2004.

Athough the fabrication of mixed-oxide (MOX) fuel is well-established with appropriate safety margins, it would still be beneficial to optimise the process by further investigating and possibly reducing these margins. It is also important to demonstrate that all operations involving plutonium and MOX fuels adhere to strict safety standards, and that these standards are based upon the most reliable tools and data.

An NEA workshop, organised in April 2004, confirmed that even though existing unpublished experiments could partially address the need for more accurate experimental data, the need for additional experiments remained. An ad hoc expert group was therefore established to define a framework and method for the selection and performance of new experimental programme(s) of interest. The present publication describes the selection criteria and methodology that were used to compare experimental proposals and makes recommendations on which experimental programme(s) should be pursued.

One of the main challenges facing radiological protection experts is how to integrate radiological protection within modern concepts of and approaches to risk governance. It is within this context that the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) decided to develop new general recommendations to replace its Publication 60 recommendations of 1990. In the process of developing these new recommendations, the views of the ICRP have evolved significantly, largely due to stakeholder involvement that has been actively solicited by the ICRP. In this regard, it was upheld during the First Asian Regional Conference organised by the NEA in October 2002 that the implementation of the new system must allow for regional, societal and cultural differences.

In order to ensure appropriate consideration of these differences, the NEA organised the Second Asian Regional Conference on the Evolution of the System of Radiological Protection. Held in Tokyo on 28-29 July 2004, the conference included presentations by the ICRP Chair as well as by radiological experts from Australia, China, Japan and Korea. Within their specific cultural and socio-political milieu, Asia-Pacific and western ways of thought on how to improve the current system of radiological protection were presented and discussed. These ways of thinking, along with a summary of the conference results, are described in these proceedings.

The safe and efficient management of spent fuel from the operation of commercial nuclear power plants is an important issue. Worldwide, more than 250 000 tons of spent fuel from reactors currently operating will require disposal. These numbers account for only high-level radioactive waste generated by present-day power reactors.

Nearly all issues related to risks to future generations arising from the long-term disposal of such spent nuclear fuel is attributable to only about 1% of its content. This 1% is made up primarily of plutonium, neptunium, americium and curium (called transuranic elements) and the long-lived isotopes of iodine and technetium. When transuranics are removed from discharged fuel destined for disposal, the toxic nature of the spent fuel drops below that of natural uranium ore (that which was originally mined for the nuclear fuel) within a period of several hundred to a thousand years. This significantly reduces the burden on geological repositories and the problem of addressing the remaining long-term residues can thus be done in controlled environments having timescales of centuries rather than millennia stretching beyond 10 000 years.

Transmutation is one of the means being explored to address the disposal of transuranic elements. To achieve this, advanced reactor systems, appropriate fuels, separation techniques and associated fuel cycle strategies are required.

This report describes the current status of fuel and material technologies for transmutation and suggests technical R&D issues that need to be resolved. It will be of particular interest to nuclear fuel and material scientists involved in the field of partitioning and transmutation (P&T), and in advanced fuel cycles in general.

Various long-term radioactive waste management options have been considered in order to protect humans and the environment both now and in the future. Most experts worldwide agree that disposal in engineered facilities, or repositories, located in appropriate formations deep underground, provides a suitable option. Engineered geological disposal is seen as a radioactive waste management end-point providing security and safety in a sustainable manner that does not necessarily require monitoring, maintenance and institutional control. Internationally, this option is regarded to be technically feasible, acceptable from an ethical and environmental viewpoint, as well as acceptable from an international legal perspective.

The Stockholm International Conference on Geological Repositories: Political and Technical Progress brought together over 200 high-level decision makers and other interested stakeholders from the national, regional and local levels. Regulatory bodies and radioactive waste management implementing organisations also took part. In addition to providing a forum for the exchange of the most up-to-date information in the field, it also served to strengthen international co-operation on radioactive waste management and disposal issues.

Subgroup 21 of the NEA Nuclear Science Committee Working Party on International Evaluation Co-operation was charged with the task of assessing neutron cross-section evaluations for fission products. The undertaking of the taskgroup was considerable: the review and assessment of neutron-induced cross-sections in all major evaluated nuclear data libraries. As a result, the subgroup provided recommendations for the best evaluations for 218 fission products, as set out in this report.

International peer reviews as a working method is closely associated with OECD practice, where it is facilitated by the homogeneous membership and the high degree of trust shared by the member countries. International peer reviews of national radioactive waste management programmes, or of specific aspects of them, have been increasingly carried out over the past ten years. This document lays down the guidelines that the requesting country, the Secretariat and the international review team ought to have in mind when an international peer review is requested, organised or carried out.

The mission of the Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) and the Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) is to assist member countries in maintaining and further developing the knowledge, competence and infrastructure needed to support the safe operation of nuclear power plants and fuel cycle facilities throughout their life cycle, as well as their efficient and effective regulation based upon sound technical information, shared experience and up-to-date methods.

The OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) organised a workshop on the "Management of Uncertainty in Safety Cases and the Role of Risk" in Stockholm, Sweden, on 2-4 February 2004. The workshop's main objective was to discuss different approaches to treating uncertainties in safety cases for radioactive waste management facilities, and more specifically how concepts of risk can be used in both post-closure safety cases and regulatory evaluations.This report includes a synthesis of the plenary presentations and the discussions that took place during the workshop. These proceedings will be of interest to waste repository safety assessors and managers.

The modelling of the key process of radionuclide sorption is of great importance in assessing the performance or safety of deep and near-surface repositories for radioactive waste. The first phase of the NEA Sorption Project ran from 1997 to 1998, and highlighted the diversity in the details of the thermodynamic descriptions of sorption processes. Phase II of the NEA Sorption Project was initiated as a major international contribution towards demonstrating the consistency and applicability of different thermodynamic sorption models to support the selection of a sorption parameter, namely Kd values for safety assessments. It was implemented in the form of a comparative modelling exercise based on selected datasets for radionuclide sorption by both simple and complex materials.

This report presents the results of Phase II of the Sorption Project, conducted as a co-operative project under the auspices of the Integration Group for the Safety Case (IGSC) of the OECD/NEA Radioactive Waste Management Committee (RWMC).

This new edition of Nuclear Energy Data, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency's annual compilation of essential statistics on nuclear energy in OECD countries, offers a projection horizon lengthened to 2025 for the first time. It presents the reader with a comprehensive and easy-to-access overview on the status and trends in nuclear energy in OECD countries and in the various sectors of the nuclear fuel cycle. This publication provides authoritative information to policy makers, experts and academics involved in the nuclear energy field.

Considered to be the standard reference work for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law, the Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication providing its subscribers with up-to-date information on all major developments falling within the domain of nuclear law. Published twice a year in both English and French, it covers legislative developments in almost 60 countries around the world as well as reporting on relevant jurisprudence and administrative decisions, international agreements and regulatory activities of international organisations.

Considered to be the standard reference work for both professionals and academics in the field of nuclear law, the Nuclear Law Bulletin is a unique international publication providing its subscribers with up-to-date information on all major developments falling within the domain of nuclear law. Published twice a year in both English and French, it covers legislative developments in almost 60 countries around the world as well as reporting on relevant jurisprudence and administrative decisions, international agreements and regulatory activities of international organisations.

The fundamental objective of all nuclear safety regulatory bodies is to ensure that nuclear utilities operate their plants at all times in an acceptably safe manner. In meeting this objective, the regulatory body should strive to ensure that its regulatory decisions are technically sound, consistent from case to case, and timely. In addition, the regulator must be aware that its decisions and the circumstances surrounding those decisions can affect how its stakeholders, such as government policy makers, the industry it regulates, and the public, view it as an effective and credible regulator. In order to maintain the confidence of those stakeholders, the regulator should make sure that its decisions are transparent, have a clear basis in law and regulations, and are seen by impartial observers to be fair to all parties.

Based on the work of a Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) expert group, this report discusses some of the basic principles and criteria that a regulatory body should consider in making decisions and describes the elements of an integrated framework for regulatory decision making.

The Information System on Occupational Exposure (ISOE) has become a unique, worldwide programme on the protection of workers at nuclear power plants. It includes a vast network for exchanging experience in the area of occupational exposure management as well as the world's largest database on occupational exposure from nuclear power plants.

Each year, an ISOE international symposium offers a forum for radiation protection professionals from the nuclear industry, operating organisations and regulatory authorities to exchange information on practical experience with occupational radiation exposure issues in nuclear power plants. These proceedings summarise the presentations made at the Fourth ISOE European Symposium on Occupational Exposure Management at Nuclear Power Plants, held in March 2004 in Lyon, France.

The Information System on Occupational Exposure (ISOE) was created by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency in 1992 to promote and co-ordinate international co-operative undertakings in the area of worker protection at nuclear power plants. The ISOE Programme provides experts in occupational radiation protection with a forum for communication and exchange of experience. The ISOE databases enable the analysis of occupational exposure data from the 465 commercial nuclear power plants participating in the Programme (representing some 90% of the world's total operating commercial reactors).

The Thirteenth Annual Report of the ISOE Programme summarises achievements made during 2003 and compares annual occupational exposure data. Principal developments in ISOE participating countries are also described.

Operational approaches to the optimisation of radiological protection continue to evolve at nuclear power plants. The continual improvement of protection has been greatly facilitated by the exchange of good practice and experience through the Information System on Occupational Exposure (ISOE).

With the forthcoming revision of the system of radiological protection, as recommended by the International Commission on Radiological Proctection (ICRP), the ISOE programme considered that it would be important and useful to document good operational practice to ensure that it is reflected appropriately in the new ICRP recommendations. This report is a compilation of practical examples of good practice in optimisation. It is intended to assist nuclear power plants in providing the most appropriate protection for the public and workers, and to highlight for the ICRP concepts that should be reflected in its new recommendations.

This report communicates the results of an international seminar which reviewed recent progress in the field of pellet-clad interaction in light water reactor fuels. It also draws a comprehensive picture of current understanding of relevant phenomena and their impact on the nuclear fuel rod, under the widest possible conditions. State-of-the-art knowledge is presented for both uranium-oxide and mixed-oxide fuels.

This sixth study in a series on projected costs of generating electricity presents and analyses cost estimates for some 130 power and co-generation (heat and power) plants using coal, gas, nuclear and renewable energy sources. Experts from 19 member countries, 2 international organisations and 3 non-OECD countries contributed to the study.

Levelised lifetime costs were calculated with input data from participating experts and commonly agreed generic assumptions, using a uniform methodology. The study shows that the competitiveness of alternative generation sources and technologies depends on many factors and that there is no absolute winner. Key issues related to generation costs are addressed in the report including methodologies to incorporate risk in cost assessments, impact of carbon emission trading and integration of wind power into electricity grids. The projected costs presented are generic and do not reflect the full range of factors (e.g., security of supply, risks and carbon emissions) that investors and other decision makers need to take into account. This report will be, however, a reference for energy policy makers, electricity system analysts and energy economists.

These fact sheets present the radioactive waste management programmes of 20 OECD/NEA member countries. They include information about the sources, types and quantities of waste as well as how and by whom they are managed. References for further information are also provided for each country.

This report, prepared by an independent review group, characterises the current role, priorities and working methods of the NEA Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA), identifies and analyses issues of concern, and suggests ways to further increase the efficiency and effectiveness as well as the visibility of the committee. It also reviews the role and interactions between the CNRA and the other NEA standing technical committees and international organisations, and suggests ways to improve co-ordination and co-operation.

Conclusions and recommendations have been derived concerning the mid-term and long-term role and orientation of the committee and, in particular, the balance between technical- and policy-related activities.

This report, prepared by a senior-level assessment group, describes the current role, priorities and working methods of the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI), identifies and analyses issues of concern, and suggests ways to further increase the efficiency and effectiveness of the committee. It also reviews CSNI interactions with the NEA Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA), the other NEA standing technical committees and international organisations, and suggests ways to improve co-ordination and co-operation. In closing, conclusions are drawn and recommendations made concerning the future operation and role of the committee.

Particle accelerators are used today for an increasing range of scientific and technological applications. They are very powerful tools to investigate the origin and structure of matter, and to improve understanding of the interaction of radiation with materials, including transmutation of nuclides and beneficial effects of risks from radiation. They are used to identify properties of molecules that can be used in pharmacy, for medical diagnosis and therapy, or for biophysics studies.

Particle accelerators must be operated in safe ways that protect operators, the population and the environment. New technological and research applications give rise to new aspects in radiation shielding. These workshop proceedings review the state of the art in radiation shielding of accelerator facilities and of irradiated targets. They also evaluate progress made and discuss the additional developments required to meet radiation protection needs.

Most experts worldwide agree that radioactive waste disposal in engineered facilities, or repositories, located in appropriate formations deep underground, provide a suitable waste management option for protecting humans and the environment now and in the future.

An NEA workshop was organised on 9-11 December 2003 in Braunschweig, Germany, devoted specifically to argillaceous settings for deep geological repositories. The workshop brought together scientists from academic institutions, engineers from various research institutions or companies, consultants, regulatory authorities and national waste management organisations to establish the scientific basis for stability and buffering capacity of deep geological waste management systems. The present report synthesises the main outcomes of that workshop and presents a compilation of the related abstracts.

To master the technology and the economics of nuclear energy, deep insight is needed into the physical and chemical phenomena at work in nuclear reactors and all parts of the associated fuel cycle. Scientific knowledge should be constantly updated in order to:
- improve the safety and the economics of existing installations and anticipate possible problems;
- optimise the design of future installations;
- develop satisfactory techniques for radioactive waste storage and disposal.

One of the most important basic tools needed for accomplishing the above is accurate nuclear data. NEA Data Bank member countries have long supported the development of the Joint Evaluated Fission and Fusion (JEFF) library, which is used as reference data for nuclear applications in many European countries.

The third, improved version of the data library (JEFF-3.0) was recently issued. The present report describes the contents of this library.

This overview presents an easily accessible synopsis of the regulatory control of radioactive waste management in 15 NEA member countries. It covers the management of radioactive waste from all types of nuclear installations, such as nuclear power plants, research reactors and nuclear fuel cycle facilities. It also addresses medical, research and industrial sources as well as defence-related sources where relevant. The overview should be of interest to a wide audience of both specialists and non-specialists.

The procurement and preparation of fuel for nuclear power reactors, followed by its recovery, processing and management subsequent to reactor discharge, are frequently referred to as the "front end" and "back end" of the nuclear fuel cycle. The facilities associated with these activities have an extensive and well-documented safety record accumulated over the past 50 years by technical experts and safety authorities. This information has enabled an in-depth analysis of the complete fuel cycle.

Preceded by two previous editions in 1981 and 1993, this new edition of the Safety of the Nuclear Fuel Cycle represents the most up-to-date analysis of the safety aspects of the nuclear fuel cycle. It will be of considerable interest to nuclear safety experts, but also to those wishing to acquire extensive information about the fuel cycle more generally.

The NEA mission is to assist its member countries in maintaining and further developing, through international co-operation, the scientific, technological and legal bases required for a safe, environmentally friendly and economical use of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes; as well as to provide authoritative assessments and to forge common understandings on key issues as input to government decisions on nuclear energy policy and to broader OECD policy analyses in areas such as energy and sustainable development.

Accelerator-driven systems (ADS) are being considered for their potential use in the transmutation of radioactive waste. The performance of such hybrid nuclear systems depends to a large extent on the specification and reliability of high power accelerators, as well as the integraton of the accelerator with spallation targets and sub-critical systems. At present, much R&D work is still required in order to demonstrate the desired capability of the system as a whole.

Accelerator scientists and reactor physicists from around the world gathered at an NEA workshop to discuss issues of common interest and to present the most recent achievements in their research. Discussions focused on accelerator reliability; target, window and coolant technology; sub-critical system design and ADS simulatons; safety and control of ADS; and ADS experiments and test facilities. These proceedings contain the technical papers presented at the workshop as well as summaries of the working group discussions held. They will be of particular interest to scientists working on ADS development as well as on radioactive waste management issues in general.

In response to growing interest in high-temperature, gas-cooled reactors (HTGRs) in many countries and the need for improved materials for nuclear applications in high-temperature environments, the NEA organised the Third Information Exchange Meeting on Basic Studies in the Field of High-temperature Engineering. The proceedings of this meeting provide an overview of high-temperature research currently under way, including studies on the behaviour of irradiated graphite and improvements in material properties under high-temperature irradiation. These proceedings also contain recommendations for further international work in the areas of high-temperature engineering.

In accelerator-driven system (ADS) development, it is important to evaluate temperature variations caused by beam trips, as this type of event in an ADS results in a temperature transient that can lead to thermal fatigue in the structural components of the subcritical system. A series of benchmarks is therefore being organised by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) for lead-bismuth-cooled and MOX-fuelled accelerator-driven systems.

This report provides a comparative analysis of the Phase II calculation results of the beam trip transients at different power densities. In subsequent phases of the benchmark, temperature transients under irradiated fuel conditions will also be investigated. This report and those to follow will be of particular interest to ADS designers, including subcritical system physicists and accelerator scientists.

In order to validate the calculations methods and nuclear data used for the prediction of power in MOX-fuelled systems, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) has examined a series of theoretical physics benchmarks and multiple recycling issues of various MOX-fuelled systems. This had led to many improvements and clarifications in nuclear data libraries and calculation methods. The final validation requires linking those findings to data from experiments. Hence, the first experiment-based benchmarks using the VENUS-2 MOX core measurement data were undertaken in 1999. The two-dimensional benchmark was completed in 2000. A full three-dimensional benchmark using 3-D VENUS-2 MOX core experimental data was launched in 2001 for a more thorough investigation of the calculation methods.

This report provides details of the comparative analysis of the 3-D calculation results against experimental data. Results obtained with the latest nuclear data libraries and various modern 3-D calculation methods are analysed. The report will be of particular interest to reactor physicists and nuclear engineers as well as to nuclear data evaluators.

This technical opinion paper represents the consensus of risk analysts in NEA member countries on the current state of the art of human reliability analysis (HRA) in probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) for nuclear power plants. The paper's objective is to present decision makers in the nuclear field with a clear technical opinion on HRA status as implemented in industrial PSAs. The intended audience is primarily nuclear safety regulators, senior researchers and industry leaders. Government authorities, nuclear power plant operators and the general public may also be interested.

Nuclear licensees are increasingly required to adapt to a more challenging commercial environment as electricity markets are liberalised. One of the costs that is often perceived as being amenable to control is staffing, and hence there is significant exploration of new strategies for managing this cost - for example, by reducing staffing levels, changing organisational structures, adopting new shift strategies, introducing new technology or increasing the proportion of work carried out by external contractors. However, if changes to staffing levels or organisational structures and systems are inadequately conceived or executed they have the potential to affect the way in which safety is managed.

In this context, the NEA Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (CSNI) and its Special Expert Group on Human and Organisational Factors (SEGHOF) organised an international workshop to discuss the management and regulation of organisational change in 2001. This technical opinion paper distils the findings of that workshop and sets out the factors that regulatory bodies might reasonably expect to be addressed within licensees' arrangements to manage organisational change. The paper should be of particular interest to both regulators and managers of nuclear utilities.

This technical opinion paper provides the reader with a concise description of both the benefits and disadvantages of using probabilistic safety assessment (PSA) to analyse operational events in nuclear power plants in order to facilitate better operator feedback. The paper's objective is to present decision makers in the nuclear field with a clear technical opinion on how PSA techniques can be used to address this issue. The intended audience is primarily nuclear safety regulators, senior researchers and industry leaders. Government authorities, nuclear power plant operators and the general public may also be interested.

The present volume is a reprint of the 1995 edition of Chemical Thermodynamics of Americium by Robert J. Silva, Giovanni Bidoglio, Malcom H. Rand, Piotr B. Robouch, Hans Wanner and Ignasi Puigdomenech, which also contains an Appendix on the Chemical Thermodynamcis of Uranium by Ingmar Grenthe, M.C. Amaia Sandino, Ignasi Puidomenech and Malcom H. Rand.

As part of Phase II of the NEA Thermochemical Database Project (TDB), a new publication entitled Update on the Chemical Thermodynamics of Uranium, Neptunium, Plutonium, Americium and Technetium and authored by Robert Guillaumont, Thomas Fanghänel, Jean Fuger, Ingmar Grenthe, Volker Neck, Donald A. Palmer and Malcom H. Rand, was published by Elsevier in 2003. For americium (and for the topics dealt with in the 1995 Appendix on uranium), this Update contains a review of the literature published since the cut-off date for the literature reviewed in the 1995 edition cited above. As a consequence on this new TDB Review, some of the values selected in the earlier publication have been superseded while others have retained their validity. The 2003 Update is self-contained with respect to any new data selections, but the discussions leading to the retained selections can in most cases only be found in the 1995 publication. Since the latter is no longer available from its original publisher, the NEA is making the present reprint available to the scientific community.

As part of Phase II of the NEA Thermochemical Database Project (TDB), a new publication entitled Update on the Chemical Thermodynamics of Uranium, Neptunium, Plutonium, Americium and Technetium and authored by Robert Guillaumont, Thomas Fanghänel, Jean Fuger, Ingmar Grenthe, Volker Neck, Donald A. Palmer and Malcom H. Rand, was published by Elsevier in 2003. For uranium this Update contains a review of the literature published since the cut-off date for the literature reviewed in the 1992 edition cited above. As a consequence on this new TDB Review, some of the values selected in the earlier publication have been superseded while others have retained their validity. The 2003 Update is self-contained with respect to any new data selections but the discussions leading to the retained selections can in most cases only be found in the 1992 publication. Since the latter is no longer available from its original publisher, the NEA is making the present reprint available to the scientific community.

The degree to which regulatory-sponsored nuclear safety research is conducted and utilised in the regulatory process varies from country to country. This statement articulates the value to efficient and effective regulation, as well as to safety, of maintaining safety research capability and expertise. It can serve as a guideline for consideration by NEA member countries in determining what safety research capability and expertise should be maintained in support of regulation and why. The intended readership is primarily nuclear safety research managers, regulatory organisations and research centres. Government authorities, nuclear power plant operators and the general public may also be interested.

Establishing reliable computational methods and tools for radiation dosimetry is of great importance today because of the increased use of radiation in a number of areas of science, technology and medical applications. Fields concerned include radiation protection, radiation shielding, radiation diagnostics and therapy, radiobiology, biophysics and radiation detection.

A series of lectures delivered by experts provides the content of these workshop proceedings. They are a valuable reference for those wishing to better understand the most advanced computational methods in radiation dosimetry.

Radioactive waste management is an area of public interest in which stakeholder involvement has largely proven itself to be beneficial to all parties and processes concerned. With growing experience, sharing best practice can be useful at the international level.

These workshop proceedings deal with the local partnership methodology employed in Belgium in order to develop an integrated proposal to the national Government to construct and operate a disposal facility for low-level radioactive waste that is adapted to local conditions. The partnerships are formed amongst representatives of local organisations in affected communities and representatives of the Belgian national radioactive waste management agency. Insights are provided into a unique - and so far very successful - governance approach to dealing with interests, values and knowledge in managing risk.

Under normal operation, nuclear reactor fuel is cooled by water circulating in the primary circuit. In the case of a loss-of-coolant accident, the reactor is stopped automatically. Residual fuel heat must then be evacuated, typically by use of a safety injection system and a reactor containment spray system. These systems are fed with water recovered from the bottom of the containment through sumps. However, because this water may contain debris (insulating material, concrete particles, paint), sumps are equipped with strainers. These strainers may become clogged, preventing emergency coolant recirculation. This could in turn lead to reactor core overheating, or melting in the most extreme cricumstances.

Participants at the workshop discussed the most recent research and developments in this field, as well as proposed and implemented solutions. These proceedings contain the papers presented at the workshop as well as a summary of the discussions that took place.

One concern commonly expressed about electricity production from nuclear power is that the decommissioning (i.e.dismantling to a desirable end state) of the redundant radioactive facilities presents a significant problem. In fact, international experience shows that this is not the case. This brochure looks at decommissioning across the spectrum of nuclear power facilities and shows worldwide examples of successful projects.

The desired outcome of nuclear regulatory activities is the safe operation of nuclear facilities in a manner that protects public health and safety, and the environment. The operator has prime responsibility for safe operation; however, the actions of the regulator contribute to this objective.

A task group was established by the NEA Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) to develop a set of direct performance indicators of regulatory efficiency and effectiveness. This report describes the pilot project carried out by the task group to test the indicators developed, and makes some general observations about the usefulness of individual indicators as well as recommendations for future activities. While primarily directed at nuclear safety regulators, the report may also be of interest to government authorities, nuclear power plant operators and the general public.

A joint NEA-EC workshop entitled "Engineered Barrier Systems: Design Requirements and Constraints" was organised in Turku, Finland on 26-29 August 2003 and hosted by Posiva Oy. The main objectives of the workshop were to promote interaction and collaboration among experts responsible for enginering design and safety assessment in order to develop a greater understanding of how to achieve the integration needed for the successful design of engineered barrier systems, and to clarify the role that an EBS can play in the overall safety case for a repository. These proceedings present the outcomes of this workshop.

The development of new radiological protection recommendations by the International Commission on Radiological Protection (ICRP) continues to be a strategically important undertaking, both nationally and internationally. With the growing recognition of the importance of stakeholder aspects in radiological protection decision making, regional and cultural aspects have also emerged as having potentially significant influence on how protection of the public, workers and the environment are viewed. Differing cultural aspects should therefore be considered by the ICRP in its development of new recommendations.

Based on this assumption, the NEA organised the Asian Regional Conference on the Evolution of the System of Radiological Protection to express and explore views from the Far East. Held in Tokyo on 24-25 October 2002, the conference included presentations by the ICRP Chair as well as by radiological protection experts from Japan, the Republic of Korea, China and Australia. The distinct views and needs of these countries were discussed in the context of their regional and cultural heritages. These views, along with a summary of the conference results, are presented in these proceedings.

When preparing the safety case for a deep geological repository of radioactive waste, the integration of wide-ranging information from multidisciplinary sources is a complex task. This has provided the motivation for establishing AMIGO, an OECD/NEA international project on "Approaches and Methods for Integrating Geological Information in the Safety Case". AMIGO is structured as a series of biannual topical workshops involving site characterisation and safety assessment practitioners with experience in both sedimentary and crystalline rock settings.

The first AMIGO workshop was organised in Yverdon-les-Bains, Switzerland on 3-5 June 2003. The main objective of the workshop was to exchange views on building confidence in analyses and arguments that support the safety case using multiple lines of evidence and integrating the work of geoscientists and safety assessors. These proceedings present the outcomes of the workshop.

The main objective of national energy policies in OECD countries is to ensure the availability of secure and economic supplies with minimal environmental impact. The means of achieving security and competitiveness in the supply of electricity differ between countries. Some governments resort to competitive markets while others maintain ownership and apply strict economic regulation. Environmental goals are pursued by direct regulation and sometimes, for example in the case of carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, by adopting market-based approaches.

This publication addresses the roles and responsibilities of governments in the field of nuclear energy, within the context of broad national policy goals, and reviews the tools available to achieve those goals. It will be of particular interest to decision makers in government and the industry, as well as to energy policy analysts and journalists.

JANIS (Java-based nuclear information software) is a display program designed to facilitate the visualisation and manipulation of nuclear data. Its objective is to allow the user of nuclear data to access numerical values and graphical representations without prior knowledge of the storage format. It offers maximum flexibility for the comparison of different nuclear data sets. The first version of JANIS was used by more than 700 users around the world. Important feedback was accumulated and improvements were added to the software to produce JANIS-2.0.

This report presents a synthesis of the key findings and experience of the NEA Forum on Stakeholder Confidence regarding the governance of long-term radioactive waste management. Most of the main findings are of relevance to all public policy-making processes, not only to radioactive waste management. In this sense, the report reads as a primer on the concrete governance challenges facing complex, collective decision making.

The interaction between system thermal-hydraulics and 3-D neutron kinetics is relevant for both the safety and the design and operation of existing nuclear reactors and reactor cores. Today, advanced coupled thermal-hydraulics/neutronics computer tools along with powerful computers can perform realistic best-estimate analyses of complex power plant transients. The results provide new insights into the conversatisms for the specification of relevant operational safety margins and can imply new optimisations of emergency operating procedures in existing plants. They also improve knowledge of the physical phenomena behind "old-fashioned" problems (critical issues) in light water reactor technology, and can specifically shed light on the interaction between thermal-hydraulics and neutronics that still can challenge the design and operation of nuclear power plants.

This is the first of three reports addressing the type of transients that are of interest in relation to reactivity initiated accidents in light water reactor power plants, and elaborating on the data needed for coupled 3-D neutron kinetics/thermal-hydraulic analysis and associated validations.

The interaction between system thermal-hydraulics and 3-D neutron kinetics is relevant for both the safety and the design and operation of existing nuclear reactors and reactor cores. Today, advanced coupled thermal-hydraulics/neutronics computer tools along with powerful computers can perform realistic best-estimate analyses of complex power plant transients. The results provide new insights into the conversatisms for the specification of relevant operational safety margins and can imply new optimisations of emergency operating procedures in existing plants. They also improve knowledge of the physical phenomena behind "old-fashioned" problems (critical issues) in light water reactor technology, and can specifically shed light on the interaction between thermal-hydraulics and neutronics that still can challenge the design and operation of nuclear power plants.

This is the second of a series of three reports. The first is devoted to the assembly and structure of the existing database related to this subject. This publications provides the state-of-the-art report on the subject. The third report summarises the results, selects the most important findings and indicates the industry position on the related subjects.

The interaction between system thermal-hydraulics and 3-D neutron kinetics is relevant for both the safety and the design and operation of existing nuclear reactors and reactor cores. Today, advanced coupled thermal-hydraulics/neutronics computer tools along with powerful computers can perform realistic best-estimate analyses of complex power plant transients. The results provide new insights into the conversatisms for the specification of relevant operational safety margins and can imply new optimisations of emergency operating procedures in existing plants. They also improve knowledge of the physical phenomena behind "old-fashioned" problems (critical issues) in light water reactor technology, and can specifically shed light on the interaction between thermal-hydraulics and neutronics that still can challenge the design and operation of nuclear power plants.

This is the third of a series of three reports. The first is devoted to the assembly and structure of the existing database related to this subject. The second provides the state-of-the-art report on the subject. The present report summarises the results, selects the most important findings and indicates the industry position on the related subjects.

In many countries, government R&D funding in the area of nuclear energy has been dramatically reduced or has disappeared altogether. At the same time, the profit margins of electricity generators have been severely squeezed. The combined effect has led to a reduction in technical innovation and the danger of the loss of technical competencies and skills in the area.

However, because different countries are at different stages of the nuclear technology life cycle, these losses are not common to all countries, either in their nature or their extent. A competence that may have declined or been lost in one country may be strong in another. Therein lies one solution to the problems the sector faces: international collaboration.

This report presents the results of an international survey on initiatives launched during recent years in the area of nuclear education and training. Key human resource issues are discussed and many good practices regarding international collaboration are identified.

The report includes an executive summary along with conclusions and recommendations aimed at policy makers and other stakeholders. It also contains an in-depth analysis of the factual information collected.

This booklet, a summary of the full report, presents the main results of an international survey on initiatives launched during recent years in the area of nuclear education and training. Key human resource issues are discussed and good practices regarding international collaboration are identified.

This new edition of Nuclear Energy Data, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency's annual compilation of essential statistics on nuclear energy in OECD countries, offers additional graphical information as compared with previous editions allowing a rapid comparison between capacity and requirements in the various phases of the nuclear fuel cycle. It provides the reader with a comprehensive but easy-to-access overview on the status of and trends in the nuclear power and fuel cycle sector. This publication is an authoritative information source of interest to policy makers, experts and academics involved in the nuclear energy field.

This publication examines the legislation and regulations governing the peaceful uses of nuclear energy in eastern European countries. It covers 11 countries from Central and Eastern Europe and 12 countries from the New Independent States:

Please note that this publication is no longer available. For the most recent information on nuclear legislation in OECD member countries, please visit the NEA website at www.oecd-nea.org/law/legislation.

This 2002-2003 update of the Analytical Study on Nuclear Legislation in OECD member countries was prepared in co-operation with the competent authorities in the countries listed herein. It is organised on the basis of a standardised format for all countries, thus facilitating the search for and comparison of information. The 2002-2003 update consists of replacement chapters for Belgium, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Poland, Portugal, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. This update is based on information which was made available to the NEA Secretariat by the end of 2003. Neither the NEA Secretariat nor the national authorities of the countries concerned assume any liability for it.

Hydrogen has the potential to play an important role as a sustainable and environmentally acceptable source of energy in the 21st century. Present methods for producing hydrogen are mainly based on the reforming of fossil fuels with subsequent release of greenhouse gases. To avoid producing greenhouse gases, the possibility to use heat and surplus electricity from nuclear power plants to produce hydrogen by water cracking is being investigated. This report presents the state of the art in the nuclear production of hydrogen and describes the scientific and technical challenges associated with it.

In June 2003, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) Committee on Nuclear Regulatory Activities (CNRA) organised a topical session on the importance of human performance to nuclear safety and the factors influencing it. The discussion focused on three questions:

- Is human performance as important to the safety of nuclear installations as many references seem to indicate?
- Has the importance of human performance increased during the past five to ten years?
- What recommendations can be made on how to manage human peformance challenges?

This publication provides a summary of the introductory presentations as well as a description of the regulatory challenges identified during the discussions. The publication's intended audience is primarily nuclear regulators; it may also be of interest to technical support organisations, nuclear operators, governmental bodies and the general public.

The Information System on Occupational Exposure (ISOE) was created by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency in 1992 to promote and co-ordinate international co-operative undertakings in the area of worker protection at nuclear power plants. The ISOE Programme provides experts in occupational radiation protection with a forum for communication and exchange of experience. The ISOE databases enable the analysis of occupational exposure data from the 465 commercial nuclear power plants participating in the Programme (representing some 90 per cent of the world's total operating commercial reactors).

The Twelfth Annual Report of the ISOE Programme summarises achievements made during 2002 and compares annual occupational exposure data. Principal developments in ISOE participating countries are also described.

Disposal of long-lived radioactive waste in engineered facilities deep underground is being widely investigated worldwide in order to protect humans and the environment both now and in the future. This report defines and analyses the purpose and general contents of the post-closure safety cases for such facilities. The aim is to provide a point of reference for people involved in the development of safety cases and those with responsibility for, or interest in, decision making in radioactive waste management.

The treatment of spent nuclear fuel is presently performed by the industry using different aqueous chemical processes. Alternative dry processes, using pyrochemical methods, are beginning to receive greater attention due to their potential advantages for more compact reprocessing plant designs, as well as for reduced criticality and radiation dose risks.

Effective transmutation of long-lived fission products and minor actinides will be based in future on multi-recycling of the fuel with very high burn-up and short cooling times, conditions for which pyrochemical methods offer various advantages over traditional aqueous processes. Closed nuclear fuel cycles, considered for the future generation of nuclear reactors, could also benefit from pyrochemical reprocessing methods. Studies of pyrochemical processes have so far been carried out at laboratory level. Much R&D work will still be required in order to upgrade these processes to the level of current industrial aqueous processing.

This publication describes ongoing national programmes, collaborative international activiities, present research needs and future applications for pyrochemical methods, used in the treatment of irradiated nuclear fuel. It will be of particular interest to nuclear scientists involved in the development of advanced fuel cyles.

Studies are under way in Switzerland to investigate various aspects of the geological disposal of radioactive waste. This report presents the results of the international peer review organised by the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) on behalf of the Swiss Federal Office of Energy (BFE) of a post-closure radiological safety assessment prepared by Nagra for geological disposal of spent fuel (SF), vitrified high-level waste (HLW) and long-lived intermediate-level waste (ILW) within the Opalinus Clay of the Zürcher Weinland in northern Switzerland.

Particle accelerators are used today for an increasing range of scientific and technological applications. They are very powerful tools for investigating the origin and structure of matter, and for improving understanding of the interaction of radiation with materials, including the transmutation of nuclides and the beneficial or harmful effects of radiation. Particle accelerators are used to identify properties of molecules that can be used in pharmacy, for medical diagnosis and therapy, and for biophysics studies.

Particle accelerators must be operated in safe ways that protect the operators, the population and the environment. New technological and research applications give rise to new issues in radiation shielding. These workshop proceedings review the state of the art in radiation shielding of accelerator facilities and irradiated targets. They also evaluate advancements and discuss the additional developments required to meet radiation protection needs.

Stakeholder involvement, dialogue and deliberation can improve the quality and the sustainability of policy decisions. This publication offers a short guide to stakeholder involvement techniques and their selection. It includes an annotated bibliography pointing to easily accessible handbooks and other resources. While it approaches the topic from the point of view of radioactive waste management, it is intended for any person or organisation considering stakeholder involvement in decision making.

Since 1988, the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency has been organising a series of workshops to address the various aspects of stakeholder involvement in radiological protection decision making. These workshops have been instrumental in forging consensus and improving understanding of key issues in this area.

Building on the experience of the first two "Villigen workshops", the third in the series extensively analysed three case studies, which covered the licensing of a new facility, the clean-up and release of an old facility, and the rehabilitation of a large, contaminated area. Consideration was given to the stakeholder involvement processes that had been used, and the implications that these did or could have on radiological protection policy, regulation and application. The workshop papers analysing these processes and implications are presented in these proceedings, which should provide valuable examples and lessons for governments, regulators and practitioners.

Within the radiological protection community, stakeholder issues have moved steadily to the forefront of policy discussions, and clearly form a key element in decisions regarding the development and implementation of radiological protection policy. It was in this light that the OECD Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA) undertook three case studies on stakeholder involvement processes and experiences. Experience and lessons were analysed and extracted that may have application to numerous situations in other national contexts. They are intended to aid decision makers and regulators who are involved in radiological protection, and may have particular value for post-accident contamination situations, the siting of new nuclear installations, the management of emissions from routine operations at nuclear facilities, and the decommissioning of existing nuclear installations.

The three case studies presented in this report were specifically developed as input to the Third Villigen Workshop (Villigen, Switzerland, 21-23 October 2003) and address the following situations:

- The Canadian review process for uranium production projects in Northern Saskatchewan;
- the Rocky Flats controversy on radionuclide action levels;
- the ETHOS project for post-accident rehabilitation in the area of Belarus contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster.

This summary seeks to answer the questions that radiological protection professionals ask when confronted with the need to consider stakeholder participation processes. As will become clear, there is no one-size-fits-all blueprint for such processes: The sheer range and diversity of the situations where they may be appropriate dictates a much more flexible approach. However, the workshop demonstrated that it is possible to identify common themes and features. These should aid professionals in developing participation processes without detracting from the flexibility needed to remain responsive to the particular demands and expectations of any given situation.

The report is intended for policy makers and regulators with radiological protection responsibilities.

The decision-making process for developing and implementing long-term radioactive waste management (RWM) solutions extends over decades and involves both a multitude of actors/stakeholders and stages. In order to be sustainable and successful, a great deal of built-